A blog by Cathy Standiford, SIA
The power of storytelling to transform lives and communities was on display Wednesday 14 March at CSW62. A side event entitled “HerStory: Her Voice. Our Future–Championing Girl-Driven Community Change” illustrated girls’ education, empowerment and enablement at the grass roots level in three countries. The session was sponsored by the HerStory Campaign, a partnership between Global GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and Lit Club, two women-led charitable organizations. The HerStory Campaign works in close, collaborative partnerships with 52 community-based organizations in 26 countries around the world.
Photo: The HerStory Campaign, a partnership between Global GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and Lit Club
All HerStory Campaign projects have four key components: (1) social-emotional learning, (2) literacy and self-expression, (3) advocacy training, and (4) dynamic group mentorship with adults and other girls. In addition to weekly mentoring and group activities through “Lit Clubs.” girls are invited to participate in regional and international “Summits,” where girls are brought together to share their stories and develop Community Action Plans (CAP). They also learn how to implement their action plans back at home.
What was most interesting to me was how the same basic HerStory template is being applied differently, depending on local needs and partner agency resources. This parallels Soroptimist’s approach to achieving our mission–we share a common mission focused on educating, empowering and enabling women and girls, but how we do it may vary from federation to federation, country to country, region to region and club to club.
In Nepal, the partnership with Rukmini Foundation offers HerStory through Lit Clubs in local schools. One girl-developed CAP involved the creation of a new library in a local school, which is now being used by the entire community.
Photo: HerStory Phillipines
Project PEARLS in the Philippines strives to help the poorest of the poor by providing school scholarships from girls from nursery through college. We heard from Linabeth, a former child scavenger, who joined Project PEARLS’ very first Lit Club and now facilitates a Lit Club in Bulucan with two other girls. Their CAP is called the HOPE Project, which strives to reduce teen pregnancy and help girls stay in school. “We are the hope of the world,” Linabeth said.
The NEWI (National Women’s Education Initiative) in Kenya offers the HerStory template within schools, pairing professional women mentors with secondary school girls to mitigate the relatively high dropout rate. Mordecai, an 18-year old Lit Club participant, has just graduated with grades high enough to qualify her for university. Her CAP is NAFALAMA, a “safe space” for girls to share their ideas, opinions and feelings with one another. “Discussing math, reading and science is important,” she said. “But my dreams, my feelings, my opinions are important too. I am the community the world needs.”
As one participant said, “The story of women must change from victimization to the story of her success and accomplishments. For that is how the world will change”. The HerStory Campaign is doing its part – and Soroptimists do too”.
Follow Cathy @siggcathy