picture courtesy of GGRF.

The Good for Girls Annual online fundraiser is live, and we hope you’ll consider a contribution!! No amount is too little, every penny counts when it comes to helping give disadvantaged girls a leg up.

Help us raise $5000 to support our program partnerships for 2018. Our grant support helps pilot or expand initiatives by small, on-the-ground organizations who work directly with girls and young women at risk.

Click here to donate!
(or copy/paste this link into your browser: https://www.crowdrise.com/good-for-girls-annual-fundraiser-2016)

What are you helping us to do?
Since 2014, we have partnered with the Girls Gotta Run Foundation in Ethiopia, where child marriage is a serious problem and girls are often taken out of school once they reach puberty. We have helped them pilot and expand initiatives that reach girls through athletics and a life skills program. Through scholarships, girls train as runners, and learn about issues that affect their lives such as nutrition, healthy relationships, and financial literacy. The running team represents a ‘safe space’ and peer-support group, and the scholarships help remove any financial burdens on the girls’ families so they can stay enrolled in school. We also support a Savings Group for the mothers of these girls (many of whom are single mothers) to provide a peer-learning environment where they can better their livelihood skills to support their families.

In 2017, the very first co-hort of 15 girls graduated from the 3-year program – all will be continuing their education, and all are no longer at risk of child marriage (read more here). From just 15 girls 3 years ago, today we help GGRF provide scholarships to 90 girls, and 35 of their mums.

In July this year, we began partnering with an organization in Singapore called Daughters of Tomorrow, which helps underprivileged women seek out livelihood opportunities and build financially independent and resilient families (read more here).

In the women’s back-to-work journeys, the burden of care often falls on their older children. Girls, typically, end up having to help look after younger siblings, while their mums look for work to make ends meet. These teenage girls therefore have to miss out on opportunities after school such as enrichment courses, school excursions, sports and other extra-curricular development. Many give up on their dreams to pursue sports or the arts from a young age, because of the practical needs at home. Some girls also end up having to quit school altogether to work to help the family out financially.

Good for Girls and DOT are piloting a “Care Fund” that women can dip into to pay for babysitting and other care-related needs to free up their older daughters’ time. The fund is also meant to be a resource to provide small amounts to cover basic costs of after-school activities (such as fees, transport, equipment rental, etc), which girls usually cannot afford.

Picture courtesy of DOT.