Why do you need feminism? Challenging stereotypes about what it means to be feminist and connecting it to their personal lives, students at Clark High School’s She’s the First Chapter in Plano, Texas, crafted empowering posters answering this compelling question.
Check out the newest issue of The Girl Gazette: Volume 5, Issue 1 for Winter 2024! The Girl Gazette amplifies the voices of girls globally and empowers them through art, poetry, and more. We highlight girls around the globe who are a part of our Partner Coalition organizations.
Youth Ambassador Gladys Njeri shares her experience participating in the Girls First Summit, She’s the First’s annual event that brings together organizations for knowledge-sharing and targeted training, with local and global insights on best practices for supporting girls’ rights.
While menstrual stigma has long been a political topic, one Hon. Gloria Orwoba made a very public plea for women’s and girls’ rights this year in a new and different way. A first-time senator, Hon. Orwoba made her way to the Kenya Parliamentary session on 14th February 2023 in clothing that had menstrual blood. She was asked to leave halfway through the session after her fellow parliamentarians requested the speaker to eject her for supposedly violating the house’s “dress code.” Hon. Orwoba’s actions made a strong statement to advocate for free pads for school girls and female prisoners. As a young woman at the forefront of addressing Period Poverty, this was such a relief for me.
We’re proud to launch of Safiya Speaks Up, a children’s book and mentor’s guide written by girls between the ages of 15 and 21 from the She’s the First’s Girl Activist Fellowship. This “tell-all” is a memoir of the stories behind the book, as well as the memories we shared throughout its creation.
She’s the First is a non-profit organization that teams up with grassroots leaders to make sure all girls are educated, respected, and heard. As the co-organizers of The Global Girls’ Bill of Rights®, we stand by Right #5, which states: “All girls have the right to comprehensive sexual education and access to free, quality, reproductive healthcare.”
To uplift this right around the world and rally girls together, our Girl Activist Fellowship’s Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights Committee, a youth-led group in STF, is hosting the Reproduce This: Art Contest. The theme of this Art Contest is "Your Body, Your Choice," and we will be accepting all types of visual art mediums (sketches, watercolors, color pencils, acrylic, oils, etc).
*The only eligibility requirements: being a girl* who is less than 22 years old!
The Reproduce This: Art Contest is an art contest hosted by girls, for girls, and will raise awareness for reproductive rights around the world in a SAFE way. All girl-centered and anti-oppressive entries to the Reproduce This: Art Contest will be showcased on our website, and if that's not enough... Selected entries will be showcased in two simultaneous GALLERY SHOWS located in New York City and Nairobi, Kenya, on International Day of the Girl, October 11, 2023.
Create a difference, embrace your talents, and sign up today! Submit your art today!
Use this link to commit to creating artwork (deadline for submission is August 15): bit.ly/reproducethissubmit
*gender-nonconforming, genderfluid, transfeminine experiences included!
Download the flyer here.
While menstrual stigma has long been a political topic, one Hon. Gloria Orwoba made a very public plea for women’s and girls’ rights this year in a new and different way. A first-time senator, Hon. Orwoba made her way to the Kenya Parliamentary session on 14th February 2023 in clothing that had menstrual blood. She was asked to leave halfway through the session after her fellow parliamentarians requested the speaker to eject her for supposedly violating the house’s “dress code.” Hon. Orwoba’s actions made a strong statement to advocate for free pads for school girls and female prisoners. As a young woman at the forefront of addressing Period Poverty, this was such a relief for me.
Author: Hope Wambui Ochieng
I am a slum girl, sooo what. Being a slum girl does not make me less a girl, iam proud because I know my right of equality.
Going to school using a rug like a pad and oops I stain my dress, pointing fingers and laughter becomes the talk of the day, I gain courage to be strong for I have no one to defend me but am still proud to be a slum girl.
I can't fit in the group of girls, speaking fluent English, with branded clothes and a rich lifestyle but am still proud to be slum girl and cannot complain of what my parents didn't offer to me, could be that is what they had.....let's end period stigma, shame and stigma.
I hope wambui ochieng as a stands for the girl child to get free sanitary towels in my efforts to make this world a better place towards ending period poverty, stigma and shame. Iam I will and I must join sdg 17 in partnership to support sdg
3 for good health and well being
4 for quality education
5 for gender equality
And because iam a slum girl I salute and appreciate those faces that smile back when they hear my name HOPE the slum girl.
#endperiodpovertyandshame
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and the Global Action Week for Education.
Hope Wambui Ochieng, 12, was born and raised in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. “I started poetry at the age of 6 years, creating awareness and sending messages of hope. During covid era, as the school were closed down due to the pandemic, I saw girls stain dresses for using rags, and some approached me to talk to mum on their behalf so she could get them sanitary towels.” Hope used poetry as a way to advocate for for her school to provide sanitary towels to girls from vulnerable families . “I took up the task of requesting sanitary towels from well-wishers, organisations and try restore their dignity and respect back. My request is for more well wishers, organisations, partners from all walks of life to come on board, support my initiative and be the change she desires in life.” Follow Hope on Instagram at @hopethepoet.
Author: Sukeji Modi, She’s the First Girls Advisory Council Member
Living in a world where I call my home
Yet I feel marginalized with pain & grieve
Asked questions as to why I felt so!
Society defined me in a way too doom!
I cry and mourn every to live my dreams
Give me a Pen!
Allow me to discover the lioness in me
That can change society and sprinkle a light
Far above all sentiments enacted on me
They call me names and put me in chains
Robbing all my dreams and fantasies
I want to live and make a change
Give me a pen!
Witnessing abuse and denial from school
Abandoned from play and all my games
Kept in dismay behind the walls
Hooked in toxic beliefs and wicked counsels
Kindly break the chain and hear my pen
Give me a pen!!
Perceived as a tool for marriage, a puppet, and less important human
Yet with my pen, I can do wonders
Liberate my world and speak justice
Unleashing all the pain and speaking the gain
The truth of my power and strength of my days
Give me a pen!
Ready to change history
Ready to break narratives
A rising of what empowerment means to every girl
It's every girl that has a pen that step in and brings the change
I need to rise to build myself
Give me a pen!
I dream so big every day
I need a school and a pair of shoes
I need some books and a piece of chalk
I want to read and write my truth
I want to fly and to reach the sky
Give me a pen!
A girl with an education is unstoppable—but barriers like gender discrimination, poverty, and exploitation prevent many girls from reaching graduation. Our Youth Ambassadors created the Power of Poetry campaign to amplify girls' voices about this issue for Poetry Month and the Global Action Week for Education.
Sukeji Modi Sube, 21, is the Executive Director of Girls' Voices for Change in South Sudan. She is also a girl child activist, public speaker, and a member of the She's the First Girls Advisory Council. Currently, she is a first-year student at the University of Juba studying Medicine. She is passionate about fighting gender-based violence, empowering girls, leadership, creative art, and public speaking. During her free time, she likes to sing, dance and read.
The pandemic has created global barriers to education, from challenges like vaccine inequity, budget cuts, and the lack of safe infrastructure within the education system to socio-economic constraints and the rising rates of gender-based violence. Adolescent girls are more likely to be pulled from school during emergencies than boys, making girls more vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and harmful practices.
