Well, besides world domination, community change and female empowerment (and the list doesn’t stop there!), our girls really want to connect.
With not just each other and their communities but also with girls around the world, just like them. We found that holds especially true with the graduates of our programs.
So, we did it. We created Global Graduates Connect (GGC) – an e-learning and community platform where graduates of Global Girl Project can build their leadership skills and collaborate with others to change the world beyond the programs we offer.
We created this platform because we saw our girls wanting to have meaningful conversations with each other and continuing to learn about each other’s cultures, languages, and religions, but also, to challenge each other to be leaders and change makers in their own communities.
Sure, this is a pilot project and a work in progress, but we’ve been blown away by the excitement with which our girls have engaged on the platform already.
One of our girls from Sierra Leone has lived in a village all her life, without phone or internet. She finally moved to the capital, Freetown, and the first thing she did was get a phone and reconnect with the founding director to say she wanted in on GGC. She was in our exchange program three years ago and has been wanting to connect with other girls from the program since. It took us weeks to help her with creating an email address and getting her access but here we are – she is now on GGC and interacting with others. That’s just one story!
All our girls, from Nigeria to Rwanda, Nepal to Afghanistan, are all talking to each other about really important issues in their communities like child marriage while also learning about their traditional food and dress – the conversations are simply fascinating.
It all goes to show, what we all desire is to connect with each other and at Global Girl Project one of our missions is to create a network of change makers and young female leaders around the developing world. With GGC, that’s what we are doing.
PS – feel free to connect with us if you’d like to volunteer or learn more about collaborating on any of our ventures.
Much gratitude,
Julia Lynch, Founding Director