Colors of Connection

Join us to raise $50,000 to support a rising generation of girls in Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Who We Are

Colors of Connection is an international non-profit creatively working where resources are few and traumatic events are great. We support girls and young women through mental health and psychosocial arts engagement, public mural making, and community building in conflict and post-conflict areas. Over the past seven years, we have invested in eastern DRC, providing direct support to girls and young women who are at the frontlines of abuses and social change.

So far, we have provided essential support to 440 girls and young women, provided 110 girls with school scholarships and engaged 191,000 community members through public murals and posters on gender equality.

We are committed to providing targeted intensive support to young adolescent girls aged 10-14 in the poorest urban insecure communities in eastern DRC a region that has been plagued by conflict for over two decades. Girls here, because of their age, gender, and geographic location face some of the highest risks and worst outcomes for girls including child marriage, transactional sex, early forced pregnancy, rape, and domestic abuse. What happens to a girl is not just an assault on her, it is a blow to the future of her family and community. Girls are a seminal force for the health and revitalization of their communities. Our work systematically enables a rising generation of girls to navigate through adolescence safely and successfully, stay in school, be better equipped to care for themselves, their families and their communities and solve the most pressing development challenges.

What Funding Will Support

We provide girls with a safe female-only space where girls can meet, learn, build solidarity and development strategies for social change. In weekly art and life skill sessions led by local young women mentors, girls learn how to protect and advocate for themselves including knowing how to safely and hygienically manage menstruation, knowing how to manage their sexual and reproductive health and contraception methods, knowing where to access safety and health services including gender-based violence support, having trusted peers and older female mentors, and knowing how to self-soothe and regulate emotions. Girl program participants are visited monthly by mentors in their homes to check on their safety and well-being. With the safety and support of a dense female network and essential knowledge and skillsets, girls can safely navigate through adolescence.

We utilize evidence-based tools and best practices developed with support from the Population Council's Adolescent Girls' Community of Practice

In addition to working with individual girls, we effect community-wide change, engaging with community stakeholders to improve access for all girls in this neighborhood to community resources and services. Our community engagement includes parent sessions, and public forums on girls’ rights as well as public mural-making as an advocacy tool, teaching the value of education and girls' rights. This extends our impact and engages multiple community groups to improve girls' access to education, and resources, and prevent child marriage.

How Your Donation Will Make a Difference

We will reach 300 girls directly, and 550 girls living in the same households as our participants will learn from their sisters. We will engage 30 community stakeholders to mobilize community protection for girls. Approximately 15,000 community leaders will be reached through our public art and community engagement activities.

Individual Impact: Adolescent girls at high risk in poor urban insecure neighborhoods in Goma will be better protected and able to advocate for themselves, helping them to stay in school, delay the age of first childbirth, and age of marriage. They will be able to participate in creating resilient, socially cohesive communities that work for all who live there including girls.

Community Impact: Communities will be better able to ensure the safety and well-being of girls and women. Community leaders will be more inclusive of girls’ and women’s interests and needs. Girls and women will be able to utilize key resources and services in their community with greater ease and frequency and experience fewer risks. Community members demonstrate positive shift in gender inequitable attitudes and beliefs and have increased knowledge of gender-based violence and gender inequality issues and solutions.

Organizational Impact: Our local partner organization Tulizo Elle Space will have an enhanced capacity to effectively deliver programming for the most at-risk adolescent girls. They will be better equipped to carry forward this work in the future.

Join us in this life-changing work of supporting a rising generation of girls!

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Girls' Mental Health Article

This project is supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance .

Your donation to benefit this campaign/project will be allocated to the Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund (“GOA Fund”), a project of GoFundMe.org (a U.S. public charity). The Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund may grant a refund in limited circumstances at its sole and absolute discretion, however, donations are not refundable after the GoFundMe payment platform has transferred your donation to the Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund. Transfers from GoFundMe to Girls Opportunity Alliance fund typically occur once monthly. All donations are subject to the variance power of GoFundMe.org, as stated in the applicable GoFundMe.org policies (https://www.gofundme.org/policies/). Subject to applicable law, donations may be tax-deductible.

The GOA Fund is restricted to supporting girls' education and your donation is made for the support of the above described project. Notwithstanding that the campaign description may name a specific organization that is anticipated to engage in the projects, GoFundMe.org retains variance power, that is, discretion and control over how funds are disbursed within the purposes of the GOA Fund generally, and within the purpose of the project specifically. For example, if the project does not reach its minimum fundraising goal, GoFundMe.org may re-assign money raised to another campaign within the GOA Fund.