Changing the narrative: Less talk (and more funding) in support of girls

If we’re going to change the trajectory for girls all over the globe, we are going to have to find a way to channel more than 1.9% of our collective philanthropy into supporting them — and more than .5% of our philanthropy into supporting women and girls of color. Our work at VOW for Girls to create a sustainable source of revenue for girls aims to bring much-needed new funding into the sector, and I’d like to tell you about it.

Our model, conceived of by our founder, Mabel van Oranje, is simple. It began with an “aha!” moment Mabel had at a wedding. When the couple asked for donations instead of gifts, it struck her: What if we could leverage the incredible resources of the global wedding industry to change the trajectory of the 12 million futures forever altered by child marriage each year? In other words, what if celebrations of love, and the money we invest in them, can support girls everywhere to choose love on their own terms??

Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, got on board, and VOW was born. Today we are a growing global movement that partners with brands and individuals to end child marriage. But we aren’t just swooping in. We’re funding local leaders and initiatives, learning from their work, and lifting it up.

Take, for example, the work of Edith Bitolo, from our grantee partner Mujeres Sociopolíticas Mamá Tingó in the Dominican Republic. As Edith shared, “Through this work, we bring [girls] awareness, so they know that marriage is not their only way out, so that they can study, they can work." Edith’s program is engaging 30 girls, ages 7 to 18, with the goal of getting them to college and ensuring that choices about marriage and kids are theirs to make, and at the same time they’ll be more educated with the ability to provide for themselves.?

As is the case with so many of the crises facing women and girls, the issue of child marriage is intersectional. It’s not a silo off to the side —?”Those poor girls getting married off, what can we do!?” Child marriage is about a girl’s access to education. It’s about her health, her personal safety, her ability to earn an income, and her fundamental human rights. A reduction in child marriage means more positive outcomes on any of these related and interconnected issues.??

And as my colleague and collaborator Fanta Toure-Puri recently explained:

“Child marriage is about gender inequality....the reason why families or communities make a choice to marry their daughter early is because a lot of times a girl is not seen as being as valuable as a boy.”

Read that statement again: “A girl is not seen as being as valuable as a boy.”?

I’m sure you find this as outrageous as I do, but our outrage isn’t enough; we need to show up with enough resources to make a difference. What message does it send to these girls when all we can muster is less than two percent of all of our philanthropic giving to help not only girls but also women worldwide? And what does it say about us, our values — about who we are? Through our funding (or lack thereof), what story are we telling about who matters, and who doesn’t??

We can and must do better. That means following in Mabel’s footsteps, and looking for those “aha!” moments on behalf of girls. It means looking for unconventional sources of funding. It means connecting the dots between the resources you have access to, and girls’ needs. And if nothing else, it means deciding what percentage of your own charitable giving girls deserve.?

Together, we can change the narrative, taking girls out of the margins of our stories and casting them center stage, where they belong.?