Girls Academy for Conscious Change

This month we are happy to report on progress made by three young women teams formed from Global Grassroots' Girls Academy for Conscious Change, held in partnership with the Komera Project based in Rwinkwavu, eastern Rwanda.  The advances these young women have made in their villages is a reflection of their hard work, skills learned, and relationships built with teachers and leaders in their communities.

"Indangamirwa": Working with Street Children
This team of young women has a mission to reduce the number of street children through providing school material to vulnerable children, training parents on the importance of the girls and children’s rights, and training children on the importance of education through drama. The team reports that they started their work by training 20 community members on the importance of education, children rights and the value of equal opportunity for both girls and boys. The group zeroed in on supporting five vulnerable children and took them to school and provided school materials they need to remain at school.  Once a week during the team’s vacation period, they tutor the children to support their performance in class.  Their home visits allow the girls to follow up with the children regularly and monitor the relationship between the children and their parents. Finally, the girls purchased a goat as an income-generating tool.  When it gave birth to three kids, the offspring were sold and the profits used to buy more school materials. The group says that they have developed confidence in collaborating with adult stakeholders, especially children’s parents. They state, “Experience and skills from Global Grassroots were the best tools that took us beyond our personal limits and allowed us to teach our community.” Their final phase of operations will involve hosting two drama performances to encourage parents and children to have open conversations. 

"Vision": Reducing the Number of Girls on the Street
This team of 6 young women worked with girls who never had a chance to attend school.  The team holds workshops on the importance of education, have provided school materials to the six most vulnerable children so that they can continue their schooling, have conducted advocacy for their rights, and are using drama to mobilize and educate their relatives on the importance of sending both girls and boys to school. Over the last three months they have performed one play and have reached over fifteen households to help educate parents on the importance of education and children’s rights.  The result: two drop-outs returned to school resulted from our program. They have five children enrolled in different schools who are acting as advocates to eliminate violence against children by sharing their personal testimonials.  Their next steps involve organizing a vacation tutoring session for their beneficiaries to prepare for the national exams. The team shares, “We have developed confidence from learning Global Grassroots’ skills, which has allowed us to reach out to our community freely. The breathwork has been the best tool to use in making the best decisions. We have learnt a lot from Global Grassroots such as financial management, conscious behavior and techniques to use in inviting the presence of our consciousness in whatever we do, how to do a diagnostic of our social issue, research and evaluation.” 

"Step Forward": Family Planning Training
Step Forward is working to reduce poverty among women and youth by providing family planning training, offering financial skills workshops and initiating a livestock program. In the last three months, this team of eight high school girls, visited the 20 women trained in their family planning workshops, noting that 8 women participated in using family planning for the first time. The team created a savings and loan circle for these mostly-illiterate women to save money so that the women could help each other buy domesticated animals. So far, the women have been able to purchase seven goats and they are expecting six more goats to be distributed in October. Based on a request from these women, the team will return to teach land circle members about financial management with the goal that they can expand their business and keep up the social mission of visits to encourage family planning. They will also continue their home visits to encourage women to use birth control to limit family size.  The team shares in their latest report, “We thank Global Grassroots for funding and assistance. We have learnt a lot that will help us to be more of personal value to our society, by using any resource [we may have].”

For sponsors who contributed to supporting these girls and making this program possible, we thank you so much.  These young women have demonstrated how a little collaborative and hard work and applying the mindful leadership skills they have learned through Global Grassroots can make a significant impact in not only advancing positive social change in their communities, but preparing the next generation to become change leaders.

At this juncture, this project is considered completed. Global Grassroots is placing its Girls Academy for high school girls on hold for a year while it undergoes an evaluation and planning process to expand this program on a national basis across Rwanda. The Komera Project continues its important work in the support of these young women in the pursuit of their education and development as leaders. 

For those of you who contributed toward helping these young women, we extend our deepest gratitude for your support and trust in this work. Global Grassroots is now shifting its work with youth to focus on high school graduates in Uganda and Rwanda during the 9-month gap between high school graduation and university enrollment when young women are at great risk of leaving their path of education. You are invited to learn more about Global Grassroots Young Women's Academy in Uganda also listed with Global Giving: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/young-women-conscious-change-uganda/ 

To support the education and leadership endeavors of The Komera Project, click here: https://www.globalgiving.org/donate/8772/komera/  

In January 2014, eleven girls from disparate parts of their poorest parts of Uganda convened for three weeks of intensive training offered by Global Grassroots after they graduated from high school. They were like eager sponges.  They soaked up social entrepreneurship skills, leadership training, personal transformation exercises and mindfulness practices.  And in spite of all this, they quietly wondered if they really had the skills, ability and confidence to return to their home communities and put into action, ventures that they had just (remarkably) designed on their own. Without realizing it, they had already accomplished a lot: the creation of a social mission and plan of action to tackle troubling and enduring issues: school drop outs, unemployment, domestic violence, early pregnancies - that they determined they would try to change - alone.  At least at first. 

Could they do it?  They were asking themselves, and we too were not sure what was possible. Afterall, these girls were the pioneers, the first group of girls to be trained in Uganda by Global Grassroots. Global Grassroots had never trained girls to start a venture alone, independently, without being part of a team.  So when we reconvened in May, it was with pure joy that the girls effusively shared their progress.  "What was your biggest surprise," we asked?  And the consistent answer from each one was disbelief that adults from their communities were willing to listen to them.  And not only listen to them but go on to support them in innumerable ways including time and resources.

One of Global Grassroots' trainees, the highest level educated from her village (located, west, near the Democratic Republic of Congo) turned down two job offers because she was determined to make an impact on the troubling, pervasive issue of girls marrying early and dropping out of school.  When she started training, she has 120 eager girls who wanted to hear what she had to say.  Josie figured out how to manage training large groups of girls at the same time, and then started an intensive training session for the more serious 40 girls on Saturdays. Josie's project so inspired her local council leadership that she was invited to be part of the Town Council Meeting.

Another trainee, Harriet, offered lessons on the issue of dropping out of school, and she first remembered, "I did not think that I was of great value to the community... but when I started talking to the girls many people were happy and gave me encouragement.  The girls - they have hope to study and finish.  They are always promising to not let me down."

And one other student, Kellen, was deeply disturbed by the domestic violence in her community and courageously took on this issue. She returned from Kabale, her home community saying, "I have learnt something great... I didn't know that I am courageous and that I can speak and people listen to me .... and even in giving out the lesson I was feeling strong and firm."  She now has people in her village discussing a new policy that will limit the bar hours to help diminish the incidences of domestic violence which are mainly caused by over drinking.

These are only three of eleven success stories.  And certainly the girls faced challenges.  Many.  They were continually hassled about "the whites," or that they must be making money, or why weren't they getting something from this work?  And they didn't find answering these questions easy.  They each described to us and their classmates (their "sisters") how they patiently listened and how they managed these encounters based on tools they had learned in their training.

Encouraged by their shared stories and equipped with new skills and tools from their May training, the girls return to our partner, and their former bording school - Cornerstone Leadership Academy - for a graduation ceremony this August before they head to university. To those of you who have supported Global Grassroots' Girls Academy for Conscious Change, we extend our deepest gratitude.  We look forward to updating you on their progress and encourage you to continue to support our training that supports these girls and their communities.