Empower and educate 800 girls in South Africa

Thanks to your support we can go even further !!!

This July we start our new programme in five primary schools in Khayelitscha, South Africa. In only couple weeks girls will start 12-weeks leadership and anti-GBV training programme in Boxgirls' Girls Afternoon Clubs.

Andiswa Madikane, Boxgirls Coach in Khayelitsha works with girls in two schools. Girls learn basics of self-defense in boxing classes. Andiswa teaches girls life skills, they talk about Gender Based Violence (GBV) and how to prevent it.

Andiswa says about challanges that girls living and going to school in Khayelitsha have to face in their everyday life: "The problem here in Khayelitsha is that girls don't have people who they can talk to, they don't know which places to go to. The problems are high rate of teenage pregnancy, girls being raped, girls being abused or girls beeing beaten by fathers or  other people. There is a high rate of girls being robbed of their lunch money or lunch boxes at schools."

Andiswa explains how Boxgirls can change lifes of girls coming to Boxgirls girls' afterschools clubs: "Boxgirls helps girls with their self-confidence. When girls come to Boxgirls at the beginning they are shy, they are not open, they don't want to speak, some of girls are very shy so we help them with the Boxgirls programme be motivated and empowered and confident with themselves."

In five new sites this year and 20 schools next year Boxgirls will offer girls not only leadership training, training on strategies to prevent GBV, but also weekend homework support to motivate girls and help with their academic performance. Also in this field girls need lots of support. "At schools teachers have a problem because of the new curriculum, they give the kids a lot of work and then their parents can't help the kids, because they are not well educated." Another huge issue in Khayelitsha is high unempolyment rate. Most of parents are domestic workers, working far away from Khayelitsha, leaving home early in the morning and coming back at night. They don't have a chance to help their children with their school tasks. 

"I a classroom teachers have 20 girls and 25 boys" - says Andiswa. "There are 45 pupils per one teacher. And sometimes their homework take 2 hours". "We help them by helping with their homeworks. When they don't understand  something, they can ask me.(...) These girls feel very empowered when they can answer the questions to their teachers. That helps them improve their marks and their level of education."

Some of girls become role models and thus can motivate their peers to perform even better: "One of our girls have been picked to go and study in a collage. Some of girls saw that she was doing well in English and other subjects, so they ask her a lot of questions (...)"

Please support us in making girls' lifes safer and give them a chance to become role models themselves.

We are very grateful for each and every donation you make. Thank you.

Your BOXGIRLS International Team

Links:

• Boxgirls South Africa
• Boxgirls South Africa at Afternoon Express on SABC 3
• Boxgirls on Facebook