Girls' Voices Offers Education and Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Girls in Impoverished Areas
By Elizabeth Morey
For more than 20 years, GreaterGood has raised millions each year to impact lives around the world, and we are so grateful for your support. Every daily click at GreaterGood.com helps us continue with vital projects around the world.
One of the projects we're most proud of is Girls' Voices, which is one of GreaterGood's Signature Programs, meaning it's one of the most impactful programs and partnerships we offer.
We are so grateful for your support. Please join us in our mission to help people, pets, and the planet by donating to Girls' Voices.
Around the world, more than 130 million girls are not receiving an education because of barriers like traditional gender roles, child labor, child marriage, and their families' inability to pay for tuition. Every child deserves a quality education, and educating girls can help break the cycle of poverty and create more opportunities for innovation and invention. Education benefits not only the students but also their families and their communities.
"The girls are very shy and don't have the opportunity to practice communication. The [Girls' Voices] program helps them think about what they want, and who they want to become. [The curriculum] also helps them figure out their strengths, so that they can make better plans for the future."
—Shirley Schneider, founder of Projeto Joule in Brazil
Educating more girls will undoubtedly have a huge positive impact on the world. Young women who are educated tend to earn more income, marry later, survive childbirth, acquire fewer diseases, be better prepared for natural disasters, and send their children to school. Their education also increases their country's GDP and improves the quality of life for others in their communities.
So GreaterGood's Girls' Voices program has teamed up with grassroots organizations in 21 countries to help address the barriers that keep girls out of school, fight for girls' rights to education, and develop a curriculum that makes sense for these young ladies.
Girls' Voices scholars from PMM Girls School in Uganda watching their peers' videos
The 400-plus students in the Girls' Voices program are taught basic cinematography, photography, and storytelling skills and encouraged to use their creativity to talk about their lives, share their culture, and communicate their ideas for creating positive changes in the world. The girls learn to create storyboards, share feedback with one another, and film micro-documentaries in their own voices. Creativity, resilience, and leadership skills are developed in workshops and become a part of the girls' daily lives as they work toward their dreams.
Girls from Shilpa Sayura Foundation in Sri Lanka learning how to work the camera
Each student in the Girls' Voices program is provided with a scholarship, which helps fund things like tuition, books, uniforms, and safe transportation to school so that she can continue her education. Her photos and videos are then featured on the GreaterGood platform so that donors can connect with her story on a more personal level. This helps the student continue to receive donations that will fund the remainder of her secondary education so that she will not have to quit school.
So many of these girls have big dreams to become teachers or doctors, and so many of them have great ideas for things that would improve life in their communities! They deserve to have their voices heard, and they deserve to have the opportunity to do something amazing with their lives!
Girls' Voices scholars from Youth Media Ingenuity Lab in Uganda having a blast making their projects for the annual Girls' Voices for Change contest
The video below is a mini-documentary directed by and starring Mona, a young girl whose family fled from Syria to Jordan. In "Dreams Without Borders," Mona describes how she must stay home and take care of her younger siblings instead of attending school, but she also talks about the dreams she still knows she can achieve with the right attitude and determination. Check out her amazing short film:
Your donations fund the valuable educations for girls all over the world who would otherwise be unable to attend school. These young ladies need your help to keep working toward their dreams and truly make a difference in the world.
Every cent of your donation goes to charity! Help a young girl change her life and the lives of so many others by donating today.
Girls' Voices: Keep Girls In School
Did you know that more than 130 million girls worldwide don't have access to education? Through our Girls' Voices program, we are working in over 21 countries around the world to help girls develop new skills in digital media, storytelling, and creativity, while providing scholarships for school. Unfortunately, without this program, many girls would be unable to continue their studies.
When you donate, you are helping eliminate economic struggles, unite communities, and pave the way for a new reality to exist where all young girls are educated.
Make a difference today!