The Power to Transform
No matter their background, girls have the power to transform themselves, their communities, and the world around them. Girl Up is a youth-centered leadership development initiative, focusing on equity for girls and women in spaces where they are unheard or underrepresented. We believe when girls and women are in positions of influence, they work to create a more just and equitable world for everyone. Girl Up gives young changemakers the resources and platform to start a movement for social change wherever they are.
Girls are powerful. Girls have limitless potential. Girls can change the world. And yet in certain places around the world, girls continue to lack access to opportunities. The world needs new solutions and new leadership now. Girl Up is preparing girls today to lead the way to a better tomorrow.
Our programs
Empower2Transform Project
This is an Embassy of Iceland funded project which is aimed at socio-economically empowering vulnerable AGYWs and survivors of GBV using the safe space model, as well as provision of revolving grants and SEED money for economic interventions. A total of 62 adolescent girls and young women from T/A Bwananyambi have so far been recruited to benefit from the project. 22 girls aged between 10-16 who dropped out of school due to child marriages and teenage pregnancies have committed to go back to school and they are yet to be supported with comprehensive scholarships (from the 2023/2024 academic year) to enable them to remain in school.
Breaking the Silence: Reproductive Justice
The Ipas-funded project is aimed at amplifying the voices of girls and women for the positive transformation of social norms that fuel SRHR resistance, including post-abortion care stigma, to have a gender-just and SRHR-just society. The project largely involves dialogue among custodians of social norms, religious leaders, technocrats, male community members, girls, and women.
Not Under My Watch Campaign Phase
The Not Under My Watch The campaign was implemented with funding from UN Women through support from the Embassy of Iceland. The purpose of the campaign was to instill a culture of whistle blowing through reporting cases of GBV among young people, raising awareness of existing referral pathways (formal and informal) and ensuring that there is access to justice for survivors. It was aimed at creating a powerful social movement of girls, boys, men and women which is empowered to fight all stumbling blocks to the effective prevention and response to GBV during COVID-19. The campaign saw the termination of 180 cases of child marriages, and over 210 teen mothers and child marriage survivors were readmitted into schools. A total of 95 youth network leaders and youth activists were trained as whistleblowers, which facilitated increased reporting of GBV cases and termination of child marriages in communities.
Breaking the Silence
Breaking the silence project focused on utilizing young people and community gatekeepers as agents of change for the creation of a sustainable reproductive justice ecosystem and gender justice. In turn the project created a pool of resilient local stakeholders and systems that are actively accountable and committed to reproductive rights, gender justice. A total of 600 youth champions, 500 local leaders and a population of 8000 community members from around 7 health facilities (Makanjira, Namwera, Boma, Katuli, Monkey-Bay, Chilipa and Malombe) with high cases of Post Abortion Care (PAC) services were targeted under the project in order to reduce stigma around PAC services. The project was funded by IPAS Malawi. In terms of the gains realized from the project, some male local leaders and members of parliament became champions for safe abortion.
Go Menstrual Health and Reusable Sanitary Pads Drive
The project is aimed at ending period poverty. The organisation advocates for the creation of conducive school environments and equips AGYW and mother support groups with menstrual hygiene management and reusable sanitary pad-making skills. Reusable sanitary pads are also provided to vulnerable female students in both primary and secondary schools. Since its inception, over 5000 adolescent girls and young women have been reached. Several institutions, including the Malawi Red Cross Society, World Vision, Women Inspire, MACRO and Camfed, have partnered with the organisation before to train their female beneficiaries, mother groups and teacher mentors.
CSE For Those most left behind
When it comes to the provision of SRHR related information, particularly comprehensive sexuality education, some categories of young people are disadvantaged and left behind. In the spirit of not leaving anyone behind, Go Fund a Girl Child provides tailored CSE to the groups that are mostly left behind, including; Adolescent Girls and Young Women, young people in conflict with the law, young people who inject/use drugs, young sex workers, young people living with HIV and young people with disabilities. These categories of young people are taught about SRHR self-care for improved health outcomes. Project components supported by UNFPA.