Press

Patience and Kashish, two high school girls from Kampala, Uganda, are intent on more than just their studies: the duo created a program to combat the stigma surrounding periods that often causes young girls to drop out of school because of shame, pain, or lack of easy-to-use period products.

Global G.L.O.W., an international nonprofit organization dedicated to equipping girls with the skills and resources they need to strengthen themselves and their communities, has partnered with Launch gURLs, a nonprofit focused on enabling adolescent girls to build critical life skills through entrepreneurship, to launch Girl Boss: a 10-week, self-directed program, which coaches girls ages 14-21 in entrepreneurship through the lens of 21st century business strategy. As part of Global G.L.O.W.’s economic opportunity arm, GirlSolve, the Girl Boss pilot program will serve as a critical professional launching pad for girls across the world. Additionally, as Launch gURLs’ first initiative is targeting key skills for young women on an entirely digital platform, this program will impact many girls’ lives. The pilot will run from Sept. 28, 2020 – Dec. 18, 2020 with approximately 200 girls participating.

In 2007, while volunteering for the education-based NGO World Assistance Cambodia, I traveled to Phnom Penh to mark the opening of a new school. The folks who attended were patiently waiting for the city leaders to cut the ribbon to celebrate the opening of this school—the first school they would have since the Khmer Rouge destroyed them all nearly 40 years earlier. It was on this day while overlooking a throng of Cambodians in attendance, I spied a little girl.

Global G.L.O.W., an international nonprofit organization operating in 23 countries, including across the U.S., dedicated to equipping girls with the skills and resources they need to strengthen themselves and their communities, will this month begin the initial global roll out of its new Healthy GLOW program. Healthy GLOW is a 13-week comprehensive health and reproductive health program providing girls with a safe space to explore, discuss and learn about their physical, mental and social wellbeing needs through knowledgeable and trusted mentors. Healthy GLOW aims to give young girls this critical health information so they are best armed to advocate for themselves, remain in school and make positive and informed choices throughout their lives.

While the evolving circumstances and news around COVID-19 are novel, we know that the global effects of a pandemic are not—they further exacerbate the inherent vulnerabilities of at-risk populations, especially for girls.

The good news? This pandemic also offers a huge opportunity, for it shines a spotlight on the structural inequalities faced by girls. If we seize this opportunity and address these inequities, we will come out of this crisis stronger, with a new appreciation of girls’ resilience and strength. We will be laying the groundwork for girl-led transformational change in our communities.

Global G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World), an international nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls to self-advocate and strengthen their communities, held its inaugural GirlSolve event on November 15th. Over 40 girls ages 14 to 18 from countries including Afghanistan, Kenya, Nigeria, Nepal, Haiti and the United States convened to collaboratively discuss how to overcome barriers to economic opportunity in their communities through the lens of entrepreneurship and advocacy.

In the last several years, we’ve seen a tremendous rise in conversations and activism around period inequality, which typically refers to the lack of access to menstrual care products and facilities in low- and middle-income communities, in addition to among the incarcerated and those suffering from homelessness. Many studies have shown that in some countries, being unable to afford or get access to period supplies can directly affect girls’ and women’s educational and economic opportunities, with girls in certain cultures opting to skip class on their menstruation days or even drop out of school because there’s no affordable or accessible way to manage their bleeding.

On a typical weekday morning, you would expect to find a pre-teen girl sitting in a middle school classroom. You would not expect to find her working on a factory floor. But in Cambodia, the latter is the reality for many girls who, at as young as 10 and 11, are pulled out of school to begin working factory jobs. With limited education and employment prospects, they are likely to remain there for the rest of their lives, never earning more than $112 USD each month. But for one young Cambodian girl named Sway Lynn, the story was different.

In the nonprofit sector, creating meaningful solutions is essential for success. Partnering with others – particularly academics and industry experts – can be extremely valuable in helping to advise, provide context, measure and validate the results of a nonprofit’s work. And while it’s certainly beneficial to surround yourself with such expertise, a critical component of continued success is to first and foremost listen to the real experts: the people whom your organization serves.

GLOW GALA – Dozens of candles, golden curtains and vases filled with white orchids came together to create an elegant and warm, glowing ambience in the ballroom at The Resort at Pelican Hill for the first gala of Global GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), a nonprofit founded by Laguna Beach resident Kylie Schuyler; about 250 supporters attended the event.

At the Doris Dillon School in Sangker Doch, Cambodia, Jennifer Estrada is having trouble teaching dance. Not a specific dance, just the concept of dance. A silly, short dance is a key component of one of Global G.L.O.W. and HerStory’s warm-up exercises — meant to get the girls in the after-school reading program comfortable enough with one another to discus the story they read for this month’s meeting.

SANTA ANA As Dinah Martinez walked to a girls mentorship program brainstorming ideas for a summer camp project late last year, her NOVA Academy schoolmate Janet Martinez brought up an issue that hit close to home.

“She started talking about her anxiety, and that’s how I told her that I was struggling with the same things that she was going through,” Dinah Martinez, 17, recounted. “So we both decided to do a mental health camp to help other people.”

The unrelated girls, Santa Ana residents who on June 13 graduated from high school, brought their camp idea to Global G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World). The Santa Ana-based nonprofit awarded them a $5,000 grant to put on the camp for other teenage girls.