2021 was a big year for the Greater Good Charities Girls' Voices program! We created more outlets to showcase the incredible and passionate work girls across the world have led in their communities. And this year we hit a milestone of working with over 2,000 students across 75 countries! Check out some of our highlights from this year:
With the restrictions of COVID-19, we launched our educational online platform Girls’ Voices Movement! With Girls’ Voices Movement, girls (across the country/world?) can participate in digital media training anywhere they are in the world! Through this online platform we provide free online filmmaking courses, spearheaded by professional female filmmakers and photographers to encourage their creativity and influential ideas.
Girls’ Voices collaborated with The New York Academy of Sciences’ 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures program to highlight the power of the presence of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Women face gender disparity, problems with pay, and other hindrances in the STEM fields, which is why it is our goal to amplify the voices of the girls interested in making a difference.
We adopted two new aspects to the Girls’ Voices program — the Luminary Mentorship and Alumni Ambassadorship programs. Luminary Mentors are women across different professions who inspire and engage with our global community of girls to give them tools and guidance for their futures. Alumni Ambassadors are selected past participants of Girls’ Voices who share their advice and wisdom through online workshops. In 2021 the alumni helped our current Girls’ Voices participants with every aspect of their projects, providing feedback along the way.
This year also brought about our 4th Annual Girls’ Voices for Change Competition — something both the participants and the Girls’ Voices team especially look forward to. Videos and photo essays were submitted to showcase girls’ actions towards impacting their communities for people, pets, and the planet. There were over 300 projects submitted, over 50 countries represented, and three Changemaker Grants awarded this year!
The Changemaker Grants awarded to three videos helped their creators implement change in their communities through girl-led projects. ARMSUN, a group of young women from Bangladesh, provided essential items to those in need. Their first goal involved distributing clothes to people in an impoverished railway area near their community. They are also helping people receive essential eye surgeries. Sia, from the U.S., launched Olive Soap, a non-profit in which she sells all-natural soap to provide the East Bay SPCA with funds for their pets. Angela, another grant recipient from Northern Macedonia, created an Android demo application, software, and a website to help people reduce their carbon footprint and combat climate change.
To top the year off, we granted 106 scholarships to girls in Afghanistan, India, Cameroon, Brazil, Honduras, and Argentina! $15,000 was also provided to Girls’ Voices participants to help them start their change-making projects in their communities. An additional $65,000 worth of in-kind grants were awarded to girls to help fund Adobe Creative Cloud Licenses, which are a large help to creating videos and photo essays for contests.
Granting scholarships and creating more opportunities for young women through the Girls’ Voices Movement would not be possible without your support. So, thank you! This year has been one to remember, and every single Girls’ Voices participant has inspired their peers, community members, and Greater Good Charities in immense ways.