Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Standard Chartered Volunteering in Mumbai

Editor's Note: This is our first post from Abbie, one of our summer interns. Abbie is working with the Goal team in Mumbai and will be blogging over the next few weeks with up-to-date news from the ground!

We’re still battling through torrential downpours in Mumbai, but that isn’t stopping Goal, or volunteers from Standard Chartered... Last Saturday saw the offices of Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai become a hubbub of activity, as 25 volunteers from the Finance Department delivered an induction day on practical finance for both staff, and later girls from the Goal programme.

In the morning the volunteers gave a series of presentations on financial planning, banking products (such as accounts, cheques and paying in slips), loans, life insurance, cards and even a tour of the Mumbai branch. For many of the staff of Goal affiliates Naz Foundation and Hamara Foundation, understanding these banking basics will be invaluable on both a personal and business level. Neyna, who has recently begun working for Goal as a netball coach, after several years as a Goal Champion, has just opened her first bank account to accommodate her first formal salary, and was keen to learn how to use an ATM machine and to understand what she could use different accounts for. For the SCB volunteers, the discussions were often challenging, not least because they had to talk in Hindi, when they're used to talking about these things in English. The Goal staff expressed an interest in further sessions, spurred on by their new knowledge to want to learn even more about financial practices, which can help them run their Foundations more effectively.

After lunch the volunteers dodged the raindrops and crammed themselves (literally!) into cars to head over to the Hamara Foundation site where the Year I and II Goal participants were waiting. Here they gave each girl a laminated 1000 rupee note and split into groups to discuss what the girls would do with the money. Responses ranged from buying clothes and jewellery, to books and medicine, to saving for parents. After twenty minutes of fantasizing, the volunteers helped the girls to categorise these purchases under the headings of ‘need’, ‘want’ and ‘emergency’. Soon the girls were confidently justifying why an iPod was a want, but clothes could be a want and a need. This introduction to the idea of prioritising spending familiarised the girls with the importance of budgeting, a concept which could be transferred into their everyday lives. Each group presented feedback from the activity to all of the volunteers and participants, a somewhat dauntingly large group! However, with the encouraging and affirmative atmosphere that had been established, none of the girls seem overwhelmed, and some even managed to make their presentations humorous!

This session is just first in a series of classes which the Financial Department will deliver as part of Goal’s curriculum, with the financial syllabus proper commencing in September. Thanks to this early session, the girls are already comfortable in the presence of the volunteers and familiar with some of the concepts that they will go on to discuss. It is a real testament to the team work, efforts and enthusiasm of the Finance team, lead by Sanjay Mehta, that Saturday was so successful and enjoyable for all involved, and the volunteers left at the end of the day with a large ‘thank you’ card and a great sense of accomplishment.

Photo of the Week: Nigeria Goal Girls pose for the camera

A lovely shot from our Goal girls in Nigeria!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Volunteer Story: Jolene

Jolene is based in Singapore and heads up Group Resourcing. On a recent trip to India, she stopped by to visit our Goal girls.


She played netball with the girls which was pretty exciting. (as Kalyani says "it is not often that we have visitors who can play netball!") and gave out a lovely beauty kit to the girls. She also sponsored lunch for our tireless Goal Champions. 


Jolene says:
As much as the girls have enjoyed themselves so did I .

The girls have a lot of potential and I am glad I can contribute in a small way to make them happy and hopefully they found the tips useful as well

Friday, July 23, 2010

Global Girl News: 23 July



  • We can't stop watching Nahni Kali's A Girl Story videos. The animation is gorgeous and the message resonates with us!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Bringing hope through football

As you know, our Goal girls in Nigeria play football instead of netball, like Goal in India.
During the FIFA World Cup, Beyond Sport wrote a report on Hope Academy. This is a really great programme which also uses a combination of football and lifeskills support, but for both boys and girls. Some kids stay in the programme for as long as ten years.
Many of the coaches have been though the programme themselves so they know how to relate to the kids and can understand what they've been going through. There are many which have faced difficult challenges in life but this programme gives them a chance to turn their life around. They are taught to be responsible and become role models themselves for other kids. Read more about the programme and how it has helped.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Coaches Across Continents

Our friends and fellow Beyond Sport Award winners last year, Coaches Across Continents always make us smile with thier updates. Check out their newest newsletter all about the great work being done by people on the Harvard (my alma mater!) soccer team.

Friday, July 16, 2010

New Photos from Chennai

Kaveri in Chennai just posted some great pictures from recent Goal sessions down there. Check them out on Facebook or see the slideshow below. The photos show the girls running role plays on peer pressure, talking about gender vs. sex, and of course, playing some netball. Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Empowering girls through media and journalism


GlobalGirl Media is an organisation which empowers girls who are in high school by giving them the opportunity to have journalistic, media and leadership training.


Their latest project is KICK IT UP which trains girls in South Africa and Los Angeles to become video journalists for the World Cup! Girls are trained and then graduate from the GlobalGirl Academy to become reporters.


Look at the videos that the GlobalGirl reporters have created. These videos feature interviews from the factory which makes the socks for the vuvuzelas (the instument played during the football matches) and also interviewing girls in South Africa who play football just like our Goal girls in Nigeria!

A GlobalGirl reporter believes in the power of her voice to change the world.

WomenDeliver Conference 2010


The second WomenDeliver conference took place in Washington DC from 7-9 June.

About 100 young leaders flew in from all around the world to attend the conference.

There are some really great videos taken during the different sessions. My personal favourites are the Women and Power session which brings up the fear of failure. Failure is not the opposite to success, but a stepping stone to success.

If you have time to spare, listen to this video. It features girls and what they are doing to empower young women, and giving their own experiences as well. It’s really interesting.





Young Women Deliver was chaired by the film star Ashley Judd and a number of young women from all different countries tell us what they are doing to empower young women in their countries. It's really amazing to hear what they do so check it out.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Global Girl News: 8 July


  • And speaking of jobs - seems like everyone is looking for a new one, huh? If we were in the US, we'd think this one was pretty darn amazing.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Photo of the Week: Indonesia Minister of Women's Empowerment


We here at Standard Chartered love sports (as readers of this blog know well) - so you may have heard that we are the new sponsor of Liverpool FC here in the UK Premiership.

We wanted to share this awesome picture above of our Standard Chartered Indonesia CEO, Tom Aaker with Indonesia’s Minister of Women Empowerment, Mrs. Linda Gumelar. This photo was taken last week during a courtesy visit to the minister’s office to discuss the continuation of our collaborations in developing women empowerment sector thru our sustainability programs and micro financing loans.