#StandWithGirls in the Philippines!

Dear friends,

I am writing to share an update report showing all the developments we have done so far.

In the Philippines, children haven't been to public school for over 200 days (and counting) and there is no expectation they will reopen this year. 23 million children (80% of all students) depend on the public education system, and these children have been left without any access to education. The educational consequences of coronavirus will last beyond the period of school closures, disproportionately affecting marginalised girls. Girls are at greater risk of not returning back to school due to COVID-19.

Our goal is to make sure girls will go back to school after COVID-19 and to keep the girls motivated and engaged in learning activities in these hard times. At the end of July, we started with COVID-19 learning sessions for children in Tacloban and Palo, but due to another lockdown we had to unfortuantely cancel the session. As a result of the lockdown, children up to the age of 21 are not allowed to leave their houses and are therefore obligated to stay at home.

To address this problem Girls Got This has been actively busy setting up online learning sessions for these girls. The session include: programming skills for girls, mentorship trainings by our Girls Got This Ambassadors and coaches and girls empowerment classes were we focus on self confidence, self belief and self worth,  to make sure the girls can use their struggles as a strength, and most importantly, keep talking about their dreams and how they can achieve them.

To show emotional support during lockdown participants of the Philippine National Female Football made motivational videos for the girls, here they shared their journeys of becoming professional athletes, as a woman, what motivated them to succeed plus a few words of wisdom for the girls in our programme. Pauline Lopez, Gold Medalist winner in Taekwondo, has been doing online live sessions with small groups of girls. Here she shared some of her experiences and major highlights of learnings of her journey of becoming a high profile athlete.

Girls Got This continued doing food relief and hygiene kits for the most vulnerable girls and their families in the Philippines.We have shared over 400 food packs and hygiene kits in Tacloban region and will be handing out Girls Power Packs in the Northern Tacloban next week. These packs include sanitary napkins, special hygiene materials for women, baby powder for young mothers and activity books for girls in lockdown without any internet access. The activity books include educational resources as well as emotional support exercises that the girls can do at home while in lockdown.

To reflect back on our previous report, we continued with the 'Stand With Girls' campaign and we have reached over a 100 Girls Got This ambassadors, who are raising awareness for the problems girls in the Philippines face, especially during lockdown. We are still going strong with our 'stay at home' videos, which are shared on our social media platforms twice a week, to keep the children healthy and entertained during lockdown. We are very happy to announce that our Girls Got This project got shortlisted for the Beyond Sport Global Award 2020! Please follow the journey to see how we are promoting Decent Work & Economic Growth!

Thank you for all your support, which is what makes our work possible. 

For more information, follow our Girls Got This on Facebook or Instagram!

Stay safe, healthy and active during these very difficult times. 

Best wishes,

Melissa Karadana

Links:

• Empowerment session for GGT participants during lockdown
• Programming workshops for our GCL players and coaches
• Mentoring programme for Girls Got This participants