Got Girl Power? Pass it On!One of the most powerful components of the Girl Power Project® is that girls have the opportunity to become mentors themselves. A girl learns how to take the powerful lessons she’s learned about protecting her body, standing up for her rights, and becoming financially independent and passes it on to other girls in their communities. Our documentation shows that some powerful Girl Power Project® alumni have mentored several hundred girls themselves.
The scientific data that has been published on impact of Girl Power Project® shows that when girls and communities better understand the human rights and value of a girl, there is more willingness on the part of parents and key adults to protect girls from forced child marriage, early pregnancy, rape and disease. This in turn creates a type of social vaccine that protects a girl and allows her to stay in school.
The more that girls know about how to advocate for themselves, the more they spread the knowledge to other girls, getting closer to what we call “herd immunity”.
Nabatanzi Joan, Co-founder of GirlNow Foundation & JLMC Founder, Vivian Glyck, 2019
Girl Power Project® former intern and mentor, Nabatanzi Joan, blew this concept out of the water when she went through the program at just 10 years old. Joan was immediately inspired with the knowledge and meticulously documented the curriculum which she then passed on to hundreds of girls in her school and her community.
The dream for Girl Power Project® has always been for girls to teach girls, who teach other girls so it takes off like a “good” virus. And that’s just what Nabatanzi Joan, now 21-years-old and, Kloey Battista, Co-founder of GirlNow Foundation, (pictured below) are doing.
We could not be prouder to partner with the newly established GirlNow Foundation, operating in Uganda. Founded by Nabatanzi Joan and long time supporter of Just Like My Child Foundation, Kloey Battista, GirlNow Foundation is working towards advancing girls skills, education, and opportunities to flourish into phenomenal leaders.
Introducing Director of Girl Power Project®, India, Pankhuri Sehgal
Our hearts and prayers go out to all of India during its enormous struggle with the deadly Covid pandemic. As case counts begin to drop, and glimmers of hope emerge, we continue our work to empower girls who become even more vulnerable when out of school. We continue to make progress and are so grateful to you for your support of this initiative!
On behalf of JLMC, Divine Shakti Foundation and Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, our new partners in Rishikesh, India, we are thrilled to announce that Pankhuri Sehgal has joined our team to bring Girl Power Project to India!
Pankhuri’s belief that “if we succeed in empowering girls, we’ll succeed in everything else” is the driving force behind her joining the team as the director of the Girl Power Project in India.
Pankhuri has been working in the non-profit sector for over eight years and has complimented that experience with her academic background in Psychology, English Literature and Women Studies.
Once schools re-open post pandemic, Pankhuri will be responsible for launching the Girl Power Project® India pilot in two schools within the first year, reaching a minimum of 300 girls.
She began her journey in the social sector by working for the empowerment of at-risk girls forced into inter-generational prostitution.
Since then she has managed and facilitated various grassroots programs for the upliftment of marginalized communities in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. She is passionate about women’s leadership and her core competences lie in developing and administering community specific implementation plans and engagement strategies that she will leverage in executing the mission of JLMC in India.
She has impacted thousands of children by imparting them with leadership skills and life tools as a leader of the Be The Change Movement (BTCM) in India. She is also one of the founding team members of BTCM. In 2020 she was felicitated as a Chetna Hero for her work towards the upliftment of the society. Service, compassion, love and integrity are all huge parts of who she is and how she lives her life. Welcome, Pankhuri!
We are so excited to begin working with her so she can become a certified Girl Power Project® facilitator. Even though India has been hit hard by Covid, and they are staying in lockdown, we’re using this time to translate the curriculum into Hindi, and train Pankhuri virtually so she’s ready to pass on Girl Power to very vulnerable girls when the doors open up again!
Why India?
Did you know that India is home to 1.3 billion people, 29 states and 22 regional languages? With such a diverse population and vibrant culture, it’s arguably one of the most popular travel destinations on earth.
It’s clear that girls are vulnerable here as well. 47% of girls are married before the legal age of 18 and only 1/2 of schools in India have toilets for girls, making “that time of the month” for girls very challenging. Girls sadly are often victims of gender-based violence as well. We are thrilled that Girl Power Project will help girls, starting in local communities, and then more broadly, to navigate these challenges.
Why Should You Care About Girls Halfway Around the World?
Just Like My Child Foundation’s founder Vivian Glyck was recently featured on Case Western University’s virtual TEDx stage with her talk “How to Transform the World, One Girl at a Time”.
She posed questions like: What if I told you we could be one generation away from solving the world’s biggest problems?
How can you be a MAJOR contributor to this global transformation, immediately?
And most importantly, why is the world more fascinated with what celebrities are wearing then why they should care about girls on the other side of the world?
We are incredibly grateful for all of the support to bring the Girl Power Project® around the world. To start a fundraiser of your own, click here or contact us.
We’re all in this together, on a mission to Transform the World, One Girl at a Time!
Follow JLMC on Instagram @justlikemychild and Facebook @justlikemychildfoundation for more updates on the progress of this partnership.
About Just Like My Child Foundation: About Just Like My Child Foundation: Since its founding in 2006, Just Like My Child Foundation has developed deep partnerships with rural communities in Africa to deliver sustainable programs that address health care, education, microenterprise, social justice, and women/girls’ empowerment. Through that work, JLMC came to understand that empowering vulnerable adolescent girls to amplify their voices and achieve their fullest potential is the most powerful weapon in disrupting the cycle of poverty. Today, Just Like My Child Foundation is focused on expanding its evidence-based, replicable model of girls empowerment, Girl Power Project® Global, beginning in the US with the Lakota Sioux Nation in South Dakota, and in Rishikesh, India.  Learn more about our quest to transform the world, one girl at a time, at www.JustLikeMyChild.org
