Mumbai or bust….. (with a quick hello in Dubai)

Well it may have taken me being stuck in a plane for 16 hours to have the time to sit down and write, but I’m thankful for the forced solitude and lack of life’s distractions. I am on my way to Mumbai to meet with, for the first time in person, Global Girl Project’s newest partners on the path to changing the world one girl at a time. Global Girl is expanding our reach to India and we are collaborating with an amazing organization called Kranti (kranti-india.org), to be able to provide exchange scholarships to some of the most disadvantaged girls in Mumbai. Kranti was started five years ago in an effort to empower and mobilize girls growing up in Mumbai’s red light district, to become agents of change in their own community. The work they are doing, as an organization, is beyond what most can imagine and directly fights against the stigma these girls face daily.

At times, I feel like I am in dream and I need to remind myself to focus, to pay attention….that this is real. And then the stress fades away and is replaced with gratitude for a path that I could never have imagined was available to me. As the founding director of Global Girl Project I have dreamed a dream where people around the world recognize their connections, their ties to each other and in that recognition we reach out to support and teach each other. Through Global Girl Project we are working towards this end and our growth into Southeast Asia, and further across the globe is an adventurous and dedicated leap in this direction.

Keep an eye out for weekly posts from the Global Girl team as we work to connect with you, keep you informed about the progress of our girls, and share useful information about global travel, women’s issues, and how we can all be a part of shifting and changing this world one girl at a time.

Namaste, Obrigada, Mesi, Thank you.

Julia.

We’re at it again! Welcome our 2nd Global Girl!!!

Global Girl Project has continued to grow and form new partnerships and reach more girls around the world.  This year we partnered with an organization called Soccer Girls, run through PlayLife, which is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.  We also expanded our work to Haiti through a partnership with a women-led Haitian organization called Foundation TOYA.  We feel so grateful for these partnerships as they are helping us to reach the most vulnerable and strong girls in developing parts of the world.  We are learning as we grow and through this knowledge we have been able to successfully bring Thaynara, from Brasil, to the US to participate in our community development exchange program.  We have struggled with the influence of major political issues, in relation to non-immigrant visas and the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince.  So because of this roadblock we are adjusting our program to work with the two selected girls from Haiti, Jessy and Sarah, in their home country through Skype and an extended visit to Port-au-Prince.  We are so thankful for the determination and perseverance of our partners there and the girls that they support and cheer on.

We want to keep you all updated on the amazing progress of these young women through weekly video blogs so stay tuned and please share whatever inspires!!  Thank you, Obrigada, Mesi.

Julia Lynch – Founding Director.

New Global Girl Project Blog is up and running!!!!

Hey there Global Girl supporters!!  We have added a blog to our site in order to help all of you keep up to date and entertained by all of the different things that our participants are doing while on their exchange programs.  The idea is that each girl will write weekly updates about their thoughts and experiences while on the program.  Each Global Girl participant will be able to write freely on this blog both during and after their exchange.

As our project expands to include many other countries you will be able to hear from young women around the globe about their experiences in becoming agents of change in their own families and communities.  Stay tuned!!!