By Brian Stevens | Engagement Director
Power to Girls Initiative Gaining Momentum in Schools, Communities
Thank you for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti project on GlobalGiving. We are grateful for your solidarity and generosity!
Thanks to you and people like you, Beyond Borders’ Power To Girls initiative is gaining momentum in schools and communities, equipping students, faculty, staff, and community members with the skills and resources to balance power between girls and boys.
Created by Beyond Borders’ Rethinking Power Team, Power To Girls includes a complete, three-year methodology to integrate lessons on equality and preventing gender-based violence into the school curriculum, including sample lesson plans for social science, biology and language teachers.
Power To Girls also includes a guide to help schools and communities create and support local girls’ groups, and a set of community organizing tools designed to create deep and lasting change among adults too.
Sixty-Three Teachers in Southeast Haiti Trained in Power To Girls
Thanks to you, 63 secondary school teachers from three schools in southeast Haiti were trained during different multi-day workshops on various aspects of Power To Girls, including how to integrate lessons on equality and preventing gender-based violence into French, Biology and Social Science classes.
Additionally, 39 students (19 girls) participated in discussions related to Power To Girls sessions for their classrooms to foster greater understanding and dialogue.
Grassroots Community Leaders and Partner Organizations Trained in Power To Girls
Your support has also made it possible to train grassroots community leaders and members of partner organizations in various phases of Power To Girls. Here’s a look at some of the Power To Girls trainings that your support made possible this past quarter:
Thanks to your generosity and solidarity, Power To Girls is gaining momentum in Haiti and building a movement of people committed to balancing power and preventing violence.
Investing in Infrastructure: New Tools and Resources to Build the Movement to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls
Your generous support is supporting the creation of an infrastructure of tools and resources that grassroots community leaders and partner organizations can use to build the movement to prevent gender-based violence.
This quarter, your support has made it possible to adapt SASA! Together* and the revised Power To Girls through Phase 3 (Support), with some additional testing and finalization scheduled. Additionally, the Girls’ Economic Power Resource Pack is largely complete through Phase 2.
*SASA! Together is the Haiti adaptation of Raising Voices’ updated version of SASA! and includes the key elements of SASA! Faith; and the development of a new resource pack for the economic empowerment of adolescent girls, to be integrated within the Power To Girls methodology. In addition, we went beyond these three to develop Safe and Capable - a resource pack on VAWG with disabilities.
By The Numbers: The Latest Movement Building Work You Make Possible
In the last quarter, your support has made it possible to complete initiatives like these:
What People Are Saying About The Impact of This Work
One of the best ways to convey the impact of the work to prevent violence against women and girls that you are making possible is by sharing with you what community members themselves are saying.
“Do you know Power to Girls has done a lot for me? I had always said that, when I finished school, I would get married in order to have a man to take care of me - to give me money and to manage everything for me. It has been during my training in Power to Girls that I have discovered my abilities and my capacity – I started thinking differently. Because it is true that I need money to meet my needs but I notice it is best when both people in a couple work together to take care of the house and home. In such a situation, it would be difficult for the man not to respect the woman." ~ Girls Club Mentor
“Only now do I understand the importance activism has had. Now we ourselves are discovering the problems and priorities the communities have and are defining advocacy objectives; therefore, the activists will be happy to organize and advocate.” ~ Partner staff of IDEH, using SASA! in Haiti VAWG Prevention Coalition
“I am grateful to Rethinking Power [Program] for the person it has helped me become; compared to who I was before, I have become a new person.” ~ Community member
“When I received an invitation letter to the training, I thought, ‘What power do they think they are increasing?’ It is only now that I know that the power they are talking about is positive power.” ~ Community member
Thank You Again
Thank you again for all that you are making possible through your generous support for Beyond Borders' Free, Educate, and Empower Girls in Haiti project on GlobalGiving. We are deeply grateful for your solidarity in these challenging times.
You are building the movement to prevent violence against women and girls and ensure that every day more girls and women in Haiti are living free from violence, discrimination, and inequality. If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please contact Brian Stevens, Beyond Borders’ Engagement Director, at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.
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