Girl Effect Fund

Title: The Second Annual Girl Effect Challenge

Dear Girl Effect Supporters,

This year’s GlobalGiving Girl Effect challenge is upon us!  Beginning November 1^st, a host of girl-centered organizations will enter to win an equal portion of the Girl Effect fund for a year.  That money will go toward programs that effect positive change for marginalized adolescent girls.

As we begin the second Girl Effect challenge, let’s look at some of this past year’s Girl Effect Challenge winners and the programs they are running to empower young women around the world. 

The Blossom Bus is a project that allows girls in rural India to continue their schooling in areas where the female literacy rate is only 2%.  In areas far from secondary schools, where conservative local attitudes toward female mobility prevail, girls are often forced to drop out.  With the safe transportation provided by the Blossom Bus, girls like 16-year-old Afsana can become the first in their villages to reach grade 10. 

Girls & Football South Africa believes that football can empower girls.  In a safe, girls-only space, girls can feel just as powerful, strong, and deserving as boys.  Through football, workshops, and discussions they develop a sense of body ownership and self-esteem.  This year Girls & Football SA spoke at TEDxCapeTown, attended the Cup of Dreams tournament in Pretoria, launched a video to combat the idea of ‘corrective’ rape, and much more!

Daraja Academy for Exceptional Kenyan Girls is a boarding secondary school for Kenyan girls with top academic scores and exceptional leadership, but no means to continue their education.  The academy provides shelter, food, healthcare, and counseling services to girls, as well as the tools and resources to become critical thinkers, progressive leaders, and architects of their own futures.  Daraja teaches its freshmen the following phrase: “My future is brighter than my past, and I have the ability to have others see the same.”

These are just three out of twelve exceptional projects that have benefitted from The Girl Effect Fund this past year.  Contribute to the projects that you care about most during this year’s challenge to help them win a one-year spot on our fundraising page and an equal share of The Girl Effect Fund!

Interested in entering the Girl Effect Challenge in the future? See GlobalGiving’s terms and conditions.

Happy New Year, everyone!

We hope you’re enjoying 2012 so far.  Since we last wrote, there have been some exciting changes in the Girl Effect Fund, and we’re thrilled to tell you about them.

As of December 2011, the Girl Effect Fund is now supporting a great new group of girl-focused organizations!  As we mentioned in our last update, the first annual Girl Effect GlobalGiving Challenge took place in October and November of 2011, and of about 50 participating organizations, we have 12 amazing winners that will benefit evenly from the Girl Effect Fund through November 2012. The winners (in alphabetical order) are Afghan Institute of Learning, Asha Trust, Care for Vrindavan, Carr Educational Foundation, Girls & Football SA, Lotus Outreach, the Mariposa DR Foundation, the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project, Shining Hope for Communities, Soccer Without Borders, Solar Sister, and Vacha Charitable Trust.

With each of our Girl Effect Fund updates this year, we’ll plan to feature three of the winners.  This update’s highlights include:

Food for Life Vrindavan, which is preventing child marriage by sending 100 girls to school in Uttar Pradesh, India. The girls will receive free tuition, healthy meals, clothes, school supplies, healthcare, and family support services; and upon graduation, they will receive proceeds from a savings account to help give them a head-start after school.

Shining Hope for Communities, which is enabling adolescent girls in the Kibera slum of Nairobi to become economically self-sufficient through a holistic program of entrepreneurship and vocational training, sexual health education, artistic opportunities, and more.

Solar Sister, which has a girls’ empowerment program that reaches out to girls in Uganda living without access to electricity and provides them with access to safe, clean solar light.  The girls form micro-enterprise clubs and sell solar lights to their communities to earn money for school fees and learn about technology and business opportunities in a hands-on program that brings light, hope, and opportunity to girls and their communities.

These are just some of the inspiring programs your contributions to the Girl Effect Fund will be enabling this year.  Thank you from us and them for all of your generous support!

Best wishes,
The GlobalGiving Team