Global Girl News: 26 March

• This week we visited the Girl Hub at DFID, an amazing new space to promote the girls agenda in international development. Loved it!

• A new blog, Footbalistic, congratulated us on our Global Sports Forum win. They showcase different ways that football can help society (Goal Nigeria, anyone?).

• Our very own Shashi wrote about the effect of the world water crisis on girls to commemorate World Water Day.

• Feminism is a controversial term, but to young women need it?. One gives her thoughts in Newsweek.

Our Sustainability Review is live

We're so proud to announce the launch of Standard Chartered's 2009 Sustainability Review.

It's been an amazing year for Goal and we're so glad to be able to share it with you. Check us out!

IWD Update: Mumbai

**This week we'll be featuring stories from around our programmes showcasing their celebrations on International Women's Day 2010**

Mumbai

On the occasion of International Women’s Day the Standard Chartered Bank volunteers and the Goal Mumbai team organized a session on hygiene for the Goal girls from Hamara Foundation in Mumbai.

The event began with a round of introductions, wherein the participants and the SCB staff introduced themselves to each other. Soon after this, Vrushali (Goal Coach) shared information on how and why women’s Day was celebrated across the world. After this Pallavi (Goal Coach) recited a beautiful poem on a ‘Woman’, narrating her qualities and potential.

The poem was followed by a session by Ruzai , a Standard Chartered Bank staff volunteer on hygiene. She spoke on how and why it is important to groom oneself. Covering the various body parts, Ruzai spoke elaborately on hygiene and self grooming. She highlighted the fact that even though combing of hair and brushing of tooth is a daily activity, the important fact here is that one has to comb the hair at least twice a day and brush and rinse mouth thrice a day and preferably after major meals. Similarly Ruzai also mentioned the importance of washing cloths after every use in order to avoid infections and sweat related rashes. She spoke about the necessity of cutting nails on a regular basis which other wise may lead to various stomach infections, as we use our hands to eat and even cook food for ourselves and even our families.

Ruzai spoke at length about maintaining hygiene during menstruation. This is was extremely beneficial to the participants. She even spoke on the ill-effects of not maintaining self-hygiene. The participants actively listened to what Ruzai was saying and asked her many questions. As part of the grooming session, Manasi , Ruzai, Aparna and Anuradha distributed to each participant a small ‘grooming kit’ containing items such as toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, nail cutter, comb etc. The girls were thrilled to receive the kit and promised to make proper use of it.

As part of the celebration, the Women staff from Hamara Foundation, their Social Worker and Tailoring Teacher who present at the session were felicitated by the SCB Volunteers. The event was wrapped up by distribution of delicious lunch boxes.

Ruzai , who facilitated the session on grooming, has to say:

“The visit to the Goal center was a welcome change from my daily Monday morning routine. The first thought that I had while in the room with the young girls was “Brimming with Energy”, the girls were very excited to see us, I believe that is so as we are the link to Standard Chartered Bank for them.

The most heartening aspect was that the volunteers ENCOURAGE ….the girls to empower and to educate themselves.

I am glad to be associated with Goal as it’s a commitment we make to ensure that a girl has a strong educational foundation, self esteem and values, and also help them plan how they can earn a steady livelihood as a step towards improving their standard of living.”

IWD Update: Delhi

**This week we'll be featuring stories from around our programmes showcasing their celebrations on International Women's Day 2010**

Delhi
Every year on 8th March in India we all have events organized to celebrate womanhood. This year perhaps was different as it marked the centenary year of International Woman’s day started in 1911.

In order to mark the event, we at Naz Goal Delhi was invited to be part of the elaborate celebration at one of the banks at Standard Chartered. Ms. Sharon, manager Standard Chartered Vasant Vihar, the Bank's all women’s branch, invited Goal girls for a tour of the Bank.

Manasi, Deepti and Sharon welcomed all the girls. The girls felt special because of the luxurious cab to carry them to the Bank and back.

For many of the girls this was the first chance they have ever had to visit a private bank on their own. The girls learned a lot from the two talks from woman from the fields of academics and beauty treatment. Rajshri and Tessa two heads of the bank spent time discussing their likes, dislikes, their aspirations etc. They also gave them a token gift of leather pad and photo frame.

Manasi and Deepti made an excellent presentation about bank to the girls. The girls had maximum queries when Manasi operated an ATM. They were all delighted to see that money can come out within fraction of seconds. It was an excellent opportunity to meet all the woman employees of Standard Chartered Bank, who have managed to reach to that cadre.

Some comments from the girls:

“Most of things were new for us. We learned so many things today. Personally it is a very nice experience.”

“I felt special. I do not know, how to express in words”

“I learned that we should keep our money in the bank, as our money would be safe and bank will give some interest on it”.

“I was happy to be given so much of importance by all the woman in the bank.”

We're a Global Sports Forum Winner!

We're so proud that Goal India won a trophy at least week's 2010 Global Sports Forum held in Barcelona. Our founding partner IFNA was on hand to accept (that's CEO Urvasi Naidoo, above, with Jordi Hereu, the mayor of Barcelona, and Gary Hall, US Gold Medalist in Swimmer).

We won the Sport and the City Award for initiatives designed to strengthen social cohesion and integration between urban communities and minorities.

Congrats to IFNA, Naz, and all the girls in India for this award!

International Women's Day

First off, happy International Women's Day! If you're new to this site, welcome to our blog. Here we update you on stories from Goal girls around the world, interesting news on the programme (and on girls in general) and updates from our volunteers.

Here are a few quick links to help you navigate around:

About us

News about our launch in Nigeria

Stories of our girls in India (and videos too!)


Contact Us by email, or follow us on Twitter or Facebook

Goal launches in Nigeria!

Standard Chartered Bank will launch its award-winning Goal programme in Nigeria, aiming to reach 10,000 girls in 2010 with football training and life skills and financial literacy education on Monday, International Women's Day. The Youth Empowerment Foundation has been selected as the first implementing partner in the country and will begin by rolling out Goal in Lagos and Abuja.

Standard Chartered established Goal in India in 2006 with the aim of empowering adolescent girls - a group with the potential to make positive change in their communities. In October of last year, Standard Chartered committed to a large scale global expansion of its Goal programme, aiming to empower 100,000 adolescent girls over the next four years. Goal covers the key life skills such as communication, accessing resources, and financial literacy. The Nigeria programme will have a special focus on HIV and AIDS and women’s health.

Standard Chartered believes that women are key drivers of economic success in our markets. Their potential often goes untapped, in spite of the fact that a number of studies have shown that programmes focused directly on women and girls impact much larger groups of families and communities. For example, Nigeria loses an estimated $1.7 billion in growth per year from girls whose economic potential is untapped.

Goal will be run by the Youth Empowerment Foundation, an NGO that has worked to implement projects for youth and adolescents across Nigeria for seven years. In addition, Bank employees will volunteer with the project.

Christopher Knight, Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria says Goal offers many opportunities for the business and the community. “Our sponsorship places us in a unique position as the Bank that builds local capacity for sustainable growth. By empowering adolescent girls, we are also showing we are Here for good in our community. Goal is a splendid initiative to discover and nurture potential future female high flyers.”

“What an exciting way to celebrate International Women’s Day by announcing the launch in Nigeria” said Jaspal Bindra, the Bank’s CEO for Asia and executive sponsor of the programme. “We look forward to bringing our unique programme of life skills, financial literacy, and sport to young women in one of our most dynamic African markets.”

At its core, Goal is about transformation and building self-confidence, empowering girls with limited opportunities in the past to create a better future for themselves and for their families. Rakhi, a 17 year old Goal Champion from Delhi, had this to say about the programme: “When I joined Goal, my father was against my joining the programme, but now his opinions have changed. I feel so proud. Someday, I will prove to him that I am no less than my brothers.”