Author: Gladys Njeri, STF Youth Ambassador
178 professonals from girl-centered organizations participated in the 2023 Girls First Summit in Nairobi—total attendees, including STF staff, girls, and speakers topped 200!
#GirlsFirstSummit, convened by She’s the First, took place on 7th July 2023 at Sarova Panafric Hotel, Nairobi Kenya. The summit brings together organizations for knowledge-sharing and targeted training, with local and global insights on best practices for supporting girls’ rights. She’s the First is a global organization that partners intensely with organizations committed to working with girls and strengthening their rights within community frameworks. The main objective of their Girls First Summit is to enable those organizations, as well as other interested grassroots leaders, to access the skills, training, and resources they need to unlock girls’ potential and enable them to thrive; they acknowledge that while real change must happen on a global level, real impact begins on a local level.
Gladys speaks on the Girl Hour panel. “Girls are knowledgeable as girls' rights allies and advocates. They are experts in their own experiences. They best understand their challenges and needs.”
“A major takeaway from this panel was that we often forget that girls are knowledgeable as girls’ rights allies and advocates. They are experts in their own experiences. They best understand their challenges and needs. ”
Gladys speaks on the Girl Hour panel.
The 7th edition of the Summit began with a Girl Expert Panel, which consisted of five adolescent girls and me, who served as a girl practitioner. I am the founder of Her Voice Matters, an initiative in my community that focuses on the mentorship of adolescent girls and young women by empowering them to speak out their thoughts and advocate for their rights and freedom. On the panel,we delved into what girls’ needs are now and how to best support them as part of COVID-19 recovery efforts. After the pandemic, adolescent girls continue to face an increasing number of challenges, particularly in the Global South.
A major takeaway from this panel was that we often forget that girls are knowledgeable as girls' rights allies and advocates. They are experts in their own experiences. They best understand their challenges and needs. As practitioners, we must be alive to listen to and respect the girls' voices as we support and work alongside them in building an equal world and an equal future.
As a Youth Ambassador, Gladys helped co-facilitate an activism training during the girls’ session at the summit.
This year, the Girls First Summit was split into parallel sessions for adult practitioners and for girls from their programs. There was a session for the adolescent girls on how to “Power Up Your Activism.” This was led by She’s the First Advocacy Programs Manager, Janae Phillips, with help from two She’s the First Youth Ambassadors from Kenya: Grace Owino and me. In this session, the girls were taught She’s the First’s 10-step process for imagining, planning, and running their own activism campaign. Through scenarios based on real-life examples, they worked on designing a campaign, which they were to later work on with their peers to give and receive feedback. This was a build-up of our advocacy training as Youth Ambassadors, which take place every month. Having undergone the training and having been part of a team designing a campaign, I guided the girls in coming up with an idea and planning on how to implement it whether on social media or physically in their community.
She’s the First Director of Programs and Impact Kate Kiama holds up sanitary pads during her session, “Periods, Menstrual Health, and Hygiene.”
Director of Programs and Impact Kate Kiama from She’s the First also led the adolescent girls in a session on “Periods, Menstrual Health, and Hygiene.” This session helped the girls understand the science behind periods. She unpacked various ways to manage periods and led the girls through the She’s the First Period Diary, a tool designed to help them better understand their individual cycles and keep track of them. She also demystified some of the myths and misconceptions around periods which were part of the concerns raised by the adolescent girls.
She’s the First Programs Assistant Florence Sidi, right, plays “What Would You Do?” with STF Youth Ambassador Grace Owino, standing left, and girls who attended the Girls First Summit with their mentors.
In the afternoon, Programs Assistant Florence Sidi from She’s the First led us on the healthy relationship card game, “What Would You Do?” This is a conversation starter deck of three card decks for ages 9-11, ages 12-14, and ages 15-18 that allows girls to safely explore the building blocks of healthy relationships and strategies for creating safe personal boundaries through play and conversation with peers and a mentor. In this session, Florence led the girls through a demo of how to use the card game. They were divided into smaller groups according to their different age groups, where they practiced the game using the tool. After this, they debriefed on what they had learned and what they didn’t like about the game. Through the game, the girls gave their experiences on different topics and their thoughts and opinions based on the community they come from. For example, a girl shared how they dealt with a bullying case in school. The girls felt relieved to share their opinions using the game, thus giving them a space to have an open conversation. Each girl was given a copy of the game to return to their mentorship program and teach the other girls how to use it.
The #GirlsFirst2023 culminated with networking opportunities with 50+ organizations present that work on girl-centered Initiatives. The participants went home with stronger interventions to support girls’ rights and with a supportive peer network.
Girl Hour panelists: Hope of Hope Beyond Hope CBO, Ruth of FEDWEN Kenya, Gladys, Lavender of Allied for Maa Foundation and Zaitun of Footsteps Kenya.
Gladys Njeri is the Founder and Team Lead at Her Voice Matters Foundation KE, an initiative that focuses on mentorship of adolescent girls and young women by empowering them to speak out their thoughts and advocate for their rights and freedom. She is also a She’s the First Youth Ambassador and an aspiring Economist. A proud Menstrual Health Advocate, she lives by the mantra, “Her Voice is Powerful, Her Voice Matters!”.