Global Girls news: 29 June

Latest bite-sized news just for you!

• The Women’s Football World Cup has kicked off in Germany! Check out all the latest results.
  



• One of the world’s top women’s footballer, Marta Vieira da Silva from Brazil, has spoken out: “I have been given opportunities to succeed in life, but I constantly think about the ones who did not have this chance... Only through women’s full and equal participation in public and private life can we hope to break poverty cycles”. Read more!
  



• ‘Girls love their bodies!’- World YWCA New Zealand are on a mission to change the way girls think of their bodies: “Young women face intense pressure to look perfect but perfect is an impossible ideal to achieve. [We] teach young women to love their own body and stop comparing themselves with others” says Kathryn Doughty, Team Leader of the YWCA Auckland Future Leaders programme.

Spotlight: Sangeetha

Sangeetha, was just a shy girl in the 9th grade in Thoraipakkam School, Chennai, when she joined Goal in January 2010. Her father worked in a pharmaceutical factory, fitting the covers on pills, and her mother worked as a helper: sweeping, dusting and cleaning for a pittance of a salary. Within a year of the Goal Program, Sangeetha has come out of her shell, and become a Goal Champion, in more ways than one.

A year ago, no one would have suspected that this skinny girl, from such a modest family background, would go on to play in an International Netball Tournament against teams from Sri Lanka, as she did in December, 2010.

Up until now I was always told that girls must not jump, or play or move their bodies so boldly. But here, with Nalamdana, through Goal, I have learnt to move and play and be confident about my body. I have learnt about the female body, what the various parts are, what their functions are, how to take care of them, etc. This I would not have known anywhere else.

Totally dedicated and responsible, she helps with organizing events at her school, taking pictures for the Goal programme and now, in 2011 as a Goal Champion she assists the Coaches, and delivers netball sessions to the new recruits. She sees her role as a Champion as an additional opportunity. She is excited that she has been selected as a Champion. She sees this as a chance to share all that she has learnt with others and ensure that the transfer of skills and knowledge doesn’t stop with her!

In April 2011, her father died of cancer, leaving Sangeetha’s family devastated. Her mother has the household expenses, her fees and her younger sister’s school expenses also to take care of, on her almost negligent wage. Yet, within 4 days of her father’s death, Sangeetha was at the Goal session, organizing the girls, conducting warm up exercises and taking attendance. Her commitment to the programme and the girls is astounding!
Sangeetha dreams of becoming a photographer. She has been taking many of the pictures during the Goal sessions and events with the Goal Camera.

Sangeetha has been exposed to the Standard Chartered Bank Employee volunteers through Goal and she says: “Seeing the volunteers from SCB come and interact with us, I observed their way of dressing, their way of talking, and the confidence in their attitude. I hope that some day I too will be able to dress like that and talk to others, instilling confidence in them, like these people do.”

Ending Violence Against Women through Men

The UK organisation End Violence Against Women has released a serious and hilarious (it's seriously hilarious), but really fantastic viral video addressed at young boys with the aim of making sexual violence unacceptable. We applaud this fantastic effort! Visit their website for more on their campaign, and try not to laugh too hard at the video!

Diran Olojo - the Soul of Goal Nigeria

Earlier this year, our Nigeria Goal partner, the Youth Empowerment Foundation, reconised Standard Chartered Nigeria Head of Corporate Affairs, Diran Olojo, with the Soul of Goal Award.

Iwalola Akin-Jimo, our national coordinator in Nigeria, had this to say about Diran:

He has being there for Goal, the girls and us. Diran always sets aside time for all Goal meetings and all events both within Lagos and outside. His level of enthusiasm and concern for Goal was such that he gave his personal phone numbers to all the School Principals in Lagos, to call him if they want him to come and meet with the students and spend time with them. Only one principal made this request and he was there. He spent close to 2 hours with not only the Goal girls but other girls. He shared his story with them, life going through a public secondary school, how this impacted on him and where he is now. This actually lets the girls know that they can aspire to be like him.

Thank you Diran for your super commitment!

What's Father's Day got to do with girls empowerment?

The best example that I can think of is for another of our spotlights... This time on CAMFED. Did you know:

Every child has the right to be educated, right? CAMFED has fought poverty and AIDS through the education of girls and young women. Read about Marian, a girl who has been given the financial support to follow her dream and become a doctor.

So what’s this got to do with Father’s Day?
In Zimbabwe, a Father Support Group, under the umbrella of CAMFED, has spent months building two boarding houses where girls can stay while at school, rather than walking desperately long distances to attend school every day. What's even more amazing is that many of the men who built these hostels are farmers who need to put in as much time on their land as possible in order to support their family... And yet they still found time to make sure that as many girls as possible could be given a good education. "We see what a difference we are making so we keep making the effort," says one of the men.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate Father's Day than to think of these amazing Dad's, can you?

Video diary: Nisha

Check out our first Mumbai video diary, Nisha. Happy Friday!

Spotlight: Dorcas

We’re very excited to share our first case study from Goal Nigeria with you! Watch out for more coming your way!

At 14 years old, Etetuk Dorcas has already decided that she wants to be a doctor like the famous neurosurgeon, Ben Carson, so that she can help her community in Lagos, Nigeria.

Dorcas initially saw Goal as being one of those after-school clubs. After joining the programme, she realized that this one was different.

She was taught about the importance of life skills, being healthy and working hard at school so that she has the leadership skills to face any challenge in life. In her own words: “I have improved physically, morally, socially and am now very careful on how I spend money because of my new knowledge on financial literacy”.

Being encouraged to work hard at school has helped Dorcas realize that she could transform her dream of being a doctor into reality. “It is my dream to become a doctor and do my best to save lives. I wrote and directed a play and I played the role of a medical doctor. I love the way the stereoscope and white apron appeared on me!” Dorcas realizes that she needs to work hard to fulfill her dream: “I am now at the top of my class. I used to struggle before Goal but I came first in my exams.”

Dorcas has also learnt about how important it is to be healthy: “I take my personal hygiene very seriously- menstruation and other natural body changes are no longer a taboo for me”.

A large part of being healthy is doing regular exercise. In Nigeria, our Goal girls play football rather than netball- something which Dorcas, as captain of her football team, is great at. She’s learnt that being a captain also means that she has to take on more responsibility to encourage her teammates to play as a team and try their absolute best to win.

Dorcas’ teacher says: “Dorcas is hard working and always ready to sacrifice her time to help others to learn”.

Liu Lingling and Wang Jing train as Goal Trainers for migrant communities in China

Lingling is a staff member of Plan International. She took part in Right To Play’s Goal Trainer Training with Wang Jing, a Student at Nanging University to learn about the Goal Girls curriculum and how to train Goal Champions in her community.

Lingling and Wangjing both enjoyed the training and intend to use lessons learned in the future. They took different things away from the experience but both liked the participatory methodology employed during each session. As Wang put it: “the previous trainings I participated always discussed the students answer and then provided a correct and standard answer from the point of view of the trainer/teacher. This way always damages and reduces the enthusiasm and the self-esteem of students/participants.” She is looking forward to trying these training methods which focus on listening to participants and allowing them to share and to promote accepting multiple points of view to the Goal trainings she will conduct with migrant girls/youth.

Lingling agreed, saying that “prior to participating in the training, I thought the training would be a trainer-led discussion and that the participants would discuss the topics and the trainer would give a summary of the results and conclusions. But the goal trainer training provided other ways of participatory training, such as participant-led discussions, discussion and learning through games, role playing and other interactive teaching/learning methods. These training methods can increase the participation of girls as well to participate in discussions and also mobilize everyone and encourage participant enthusiasm.”

Wangjing also enjoyed learning about HIV/AIDs as part of the Be Healthy Goal Curriculum. She says that “before the training, I had limited knowledge about HIV and AIDS and girls protection. After having participated in the trainer training, now I know much more knowledge related to AIDS and girls’ protection, such as the infection source of HIV, transmission mechanisms and prevention measures. Moreover, I have taught and shared this knowledge with my peers, and told them how to protect themselves and prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.”

Video diaries: Mamta

Are you enjoying our video diaries? By now you may have figured out you can see them all on our YouTube channel (if you can't wait any longer) but perhaps you're enjoying seeing them presented here with comment. And let me just take a moment to comment on Mamta and her story, which you can see below.

I have had the very great pleasure to meet Mamta on more than one occasion - she has a quiet confidence that is really striking, and although language is a barrier, she's just as forceful sounding to a non-Hindi speaker!

Mamta now runs sessions for her peers in Delhi, in addition to attending school. She came to our Goal Partner Summit in February to run the Body Image exercise for the whole group, and did an amazing job. She's below, third from left.



A lot of what she discusses in the video was thrown into relief for me that earlier this year, her mother passed away, leaving her with a larger share of household responsibilities, on top of Goal and school. Her father has been incredibly supportive of Mamta's education, and she hopes to be able to continue.