Project Good for Girls Annual Fundraiser 2023

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL 2023!

Once again, we’re commemorating the day by launching our annual fundraiser in support of girls’ education and skills-building!

Over the last few years, our grant project partners have been working extremely hard to get ahead of an onslaught of tough challenges due to COVID-19, inflation and severe political instability in their countries. Their tireless efforts are truly impressive and inspiring, and have allowed many of the girls we support to continue with their learning.

We hope you will join us to help provide critical support over the coming year, especially in light of new funding challenges caused the effects of global inflation. Every bit counts!

PARTNER PROJECT UPDATES

Girls Gotta Run Foundation

In Ethiopia, where GGRF operates, only about 25% of girls go to secondary school. Far fewer graduate and just a tiny fraction go on to tertiary education. Child marriage, where girls are married off before age 18 (often right when they hit puberty) continues to be a serious problem. Once a girl is married, her access to education and peer networks ceases, and motherhood follows soon after despite the girl still being a child herself.

GGRF’s mission – through athletics and life skills – is to increase the number of girls in school, while also increasing their self-confidence, access to economic assets, and control over life choices. Because of the pandemic and political conflict, restoring regular programming has been especially hard. However, over the course of 2022-2023, both staff and partners have worked immensely hard to get things back to normal programming.

In Bekoji and Sodo, a total of 75 adolescent girls were added to the programme (increasing from 160 girls in 2022). They all receive scholarships which provide tuition, school lunches, school uniforms and hygiene supplies, running kits, life-skills education, and access to showers and laundry.

Since its launch in 2014, 98% of girls who completed the programme have delayed marriage and childbirth (before 18 or before completing secondary school). 96% have finished or are on track to finish secondary school, And a significant number have gone on to college and tertiary vocational studies. In addition, GGRF has made an important impact on the community, reaching over 1400 people including parents, siblings, and community leaders. One example of this impact is the establishment of Mothers' Groups -- these are voluntary groups run by the mothers of GGRF scholars, who support each other to become financially independent and expand their entrepreneurial skills and opportunities. Many of these women were once child brides themselves, robbed of their youth and potential -- they are committed to a different future for their daughters, and to raising each other up to forge their independence and improve the lives of their families.

In Sodo, the Mothers' Group, which was newly set up in 2022, is now at the stage where they make loans to one another, after reviewing each other's practical business plans (such as buying two chickens to sell the eggs). The group unanimously agreed to award the very first loan to one of the mothers who needed emergency care for her son with malaria, resulting in the boy making a full recovery. "The Mothers' Group really saved a life," said Kiddist, GGRF programme manager in Sodo.

As partner, we hope to continue supporting GGRF to expand its support for adolescent girls both joining the programme, and as alumni so they can continue with their studies and give back by becoming life-skills mentors to the younger girls. We also hope to help strengthen the Mothers' Groups to promote community-led women's and girl's empowerment activities. Our 2023-2024 contribution will be especially critical to help keep the organization running in light of recent financial constraints related to inflation.

Girls Gotta Run Foundation is registered as a 501c3 organization in the United States.

(Photo: GGRF athletic scholars busy training; photo courtesy of GGRF)

(Drawing by CtI student Farahnaz Osmani; courtesy of CtI)

Code to Inspire, Afghanistan

The upheaval and turmoil In Afghanistan caused by the seizure of power by the Taliban in 2021 continues to disrupt the lives of millions of women and girls living there. Education is prohibited for girls and women.

After the Taliban took over in Herat in August 2021, CtI was forced to cease operations and figure out how to adapt to the unsafe and highly volatile situation. All schools for teenage girls were closed permanently. In October, CtI's entire coding and graphic design curriculum was moved online using Google classroom. After assessing students’ needs and technical capabilities, laptops were provided to girls who needed them, along with monthly internet subscriptions so all students could continue their online classes. Through our flash fundraising appeal in October 2021, we were immensely grateful to all our donors for helping to provide $12000 in urgent funds to CtI to help meet their students’ and families' immediate needs during the crisis, which included food, medicine, rent assistance and internet access.

A year later, through sheer, unrelenting persistence, CtI received permission to renew its work permit, meaning that its coding school could legally reopen. In October 2022, a new graphic design class welcomed 200 girls and young women (a one-year tertiary afterschool programme), and 80 students began a full-stack web development course. However, completely unexpectedly, on 20th December 2022, the Taliban declared that all education and extracurricular activities for women and girls, including tertiary/university students, would be suspended indefinitely.

Once again, CtI had to adapt rapidly, and shift all its operations and programmes online. Your support helped to keep courses running through the purchase of devices and internet access. In October 2023, testament to the resilience of Afghan women and their strong desire to learn, CtI introduced three new cohorts specializing in Graphic Design, UX/UI, and Motion/Animation. 80% of its students have been able to continue learning, and many young women have also been able to continue earning an income through remote work contracts that help support their families.

Sadly, disaster struck again just last week, when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan's northwest region, particularly affecting Herat province. Thousands of people lost their lives, were badly injured or remain missing - 2/3 of the victims are women and children.

As partner, our support will go towards meeting whatever needs are most pressing among the students of CtI, including emergency and medical care, and food and hygiene supplies. We are holding our partner and their staff and students close to our hearts at this awful time.

(Photo: Farahnaz Osmani and a drawing she has titled 'Hope'; courtesy of CtI)

Code to Inspire is registered as a 501c3 organization in the United States.