Time for another update already? Days fly by here at the GGP HQ!

We are less than a month away from fully launching our Blended Learning Leadership Initiative and we are super excited for everyone we will be welcoming to the program this time around. We met this week with our new program facilitators from Jordan, Afghanistan and South Africa to prepare them to run the program in their regions. We're going to be working with 10 girls in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, 10 girls in Johannesburg, South Africa and 10 girls in Karak, Jordan, as well as 10 girls in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and 10 girls in Lagos, Nigeria. That’s a whopping 50 girls who will be starting with GGP this September. We are simply thrilled to have them all join us and we are grateful to both Skateistan and Madrasati for our new partnerships.

Our new Program Facilitators from Skateistan and Madrasati.

We are working around the clock to try and make adjustments to our program. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, our girls in places like Johannesburg may not be able to meet in person so we're looking at ways to work with our partners to provide the resources necessary to do this 100% online. We're working with our partners in Jordan around a new school schedule that's being set by their government in preparation for a possible second wave of the COVID-19 virus. We're really being put to the test to be as flexible and adaptable as possible, and we’re prepared to rise to that challenge. It’s something that we want to teach our girls here, too.

Meanwhile, here are a couple more amazing illustrations from our upcoming book “More Than One Voice”, which is currently with the typesetter as we speak being readied for publication at the beginning of October. Major gratitude and a huge shout out to our volunteers who we are going to highlight a bit more later - Max, Camila, Kate, Paloma and Ruksana, who have been working day and night to bring this project to fruition. We can't wait for you to meet our inspiring girls and read their stories. Watch out for the announcement so you can get your copy online – we will have physical copies and e-book versions. For our fundraising donors that supported our recent book campaign, if you chose the book as a perk, you are going to love receiving it.

Andddd drum roll for our next major announcement please! We’ve got a global digital leadership summit in the works and we want you to be a part of it. Scheduled for mid-November this year, we are looking for people from all over the world who would be interested in possibly speaking, leading a workshop, or collaborating in any other way. Send us your ideas, thoughts, suggestions, we are all ears for what you’d like to see from this summit. Simply head to our Contact Page right here and let us know.

Much gratitude,
Julia Lynch, Founding Director.

Global Girl is Expanding into Afghanistan and South Africa...and so much more!!!

Global Girl is expanding into Afghanistan and South Africa!!!

Hello friends, hope you’ve been well! 

The big announcement that we want to share with you is our new partnership with the award-winning international NGO Skateistan - an innovative organization that runs skateboarding and life skills educational programs in Afghanistan, South Africa and Cambodia. We will be partnering with them to launch our Blended Learning Leadership Initiative in September/October, with both their South African team and their Afghani teams. We look forward to this being a long-term partnership toward the mobilization of young women in these countries. Go check out their award-winning short film Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) – it won both a BAFTA and an Oscar. We also have a new partnership with an organization in Jordan in the works so stay tuned for our updates on that as well.

Another big one for us – we met with the Girls’ Schools Association in the UK and are exploring ways that we can partner with them to offer some leadership programming within school programs in the UK, that focus on community development leadership and fundraising for GGP programming. Additionally, we have been accepted into the Cisco matching program so we can work with Cisco employees around some fundraising for our programming as well. We're grateful for their support!

We have an update on ‘The Book’ announced in our last blog post, please read here. Our young authors have finished writing their stories and we’re editing and illustrating now as we prepare for publication. We will be hosting a crowdfunding campaign starting mid-June to raise funds for us to publish this book so watch out for details. 

“This book truly has been a work of collaboration in response to the COVID-19 crisis. We knew that our girls were in isolation and lockdown in their respective countries. Often in situations with many people living in small spaces, without the luxuries of regular internet or television. The book provided a channel to engage with them and support them in this difficult time. We worked with them in writing their stories and are working for this book to create some economic independence for our authors. We can't wait to share this YA book with you. Please support the fundraiser, we will have more information to share with you on that soon.”

We are very grateful to be working with Fran Borg-Wheeler, who is doing some pro bono work with our director and our board around charity leadership management. To our supporters: you are the best. We love your enthusiasm for our work and love to hear from you with ideas for fundraising that you may want to do for us. Many of you have used your birthdays, anniversaries and other life events to create fundraisers for GGP on Facebook, we cannot thank you enough for your thoughtful gestures. 

The online fundraisers on social media are pretty easy to set up and all you have to do is choose Global Girl Project as the charity of your choice. (Here’s a helpful link with instructions if that’s been on your mind). We welcome any other creative ways that you would like to support our work and always look forward to hearing from you here on the website and on social media too. 

Much gratitude,
Julia Lynch, Founding Director.