Invest in HER: Together WE CAN Achieve Gender Equality

All of us (girls) being seated at the table will make a lot of difference. One voice might not make a noise, two might not, but if we have a thousand voices making the same noise, I think the change we need is possible. Hawa Abdiaziz - SheLeads Kakuma

March is a vibrant time at Asante Africa Foundation. On International Women's Day and throughout Women's History Month, we celebrate our Asante Africa girls' extraordinary successes in transforming their lives, communities, and beyond. We reflect on the components of our educational programs that are particularly effective in promoting gender equality.

Fundamental to the success of our programs is engaging young people at the center of all that takes place. We focus on supporting gender equality and quality education with access to opportunities. Asante Africa's overarching gender equality guiding principles are:

1. LEARN: Gender equality must begin in schools and go well beyond the walls of a classroom. We provide girls at the most significant school dropout age (11-14) with practical and educational tools to stay in school. We also nurture those girls who cannot attend formal school. It is a collective experience inclusive of parents, educators, and the child themselves. We recruit parents as active participants and advocates for their daughters' education.
2. DO: Girls need opportunities to practice with leadership opportunities to thrive, especially in traditionally male-dominated communities. We educate and enlist boys as allies to support girls' educational transformational journeys.
3. TEACH: We enable young people to unleash their creativity to amplify impact, exploring innovative ways to utilize emerging technologies to empower more girls.

Following the International Women's Day 2024 theme, Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress, the Asante Africa team has been working on strategies to share our classroom and community insights. Yesterday, we brought together a panel of diverse voices and global experts in education and gender equality who share our vision of gender equality-enabled classrooms and communities.

From left to right: Wevyn Muganda - Deputy CEO Asante Africa Foundation, Mariama Wurie - UN Girls’ Education Initiative, Suju Poon- Women LEAD Nepal, Erna Grasz - CEO Asante Africa Foundation, Nassuna Specioza - Asante Africa Foundation, Hawa Abdiaziz - SheLeads Kakuma, Rosalía Pi?a Vélez - Chalk Back

I am excited to share key points from our collective knowledge and insights:

• Everyone is a learner, and everyone is a teacher. We are all responsible for sharing knowledge with younger learners - financial skills, staying safe, child rights, and team leadership skills.
• Leadership starts with where you stand and in every way you engage. Leadership is not an external role given to a young woman; it is a way of being.

A leader was once a follower; understand that as a follower, you can have different kinds of powers, like holding your leaders accountable or changing their direction. Suju Poon- Women LEAD Nepal

• Girls need safe spaces to discuss sensitive or highly personal topics with older girls and women.

We need to get schools to be safe and schools need to be inclusive. Mariama Wurie - UN Girls’ Education Initiative

• Every girl deserves an opportunity to learn, do, and teach others new skills. Forgotten girls at risk of being left behind need a place in decision-making spaces: out-of-school girls, refugee-based girls, and girls of all ages.

Change is possible. Just because I was born in a refugee camp does not mean I shouldn’t have the same rights as anybody who is outside the camp. Education is a human right. Every child has the right to education, not just any education. Quality education is a right for every child and every human being. Hawa Abdiaziz - SheLeads Kakuma

• Leadership is not a one-day workshop. It is a muscle that needs to be nurtured and strengthened.
• Girls learning to use their voices early builds confidence in speaking up in public. Teaching these girls how to hold community leaders accountable for gender equality is critical. Our girls recommend solutions and become part of problem-solving implementation and evaluation.

They (Asante Africa Foundation) trained us to make reusable pads and liquid soap; later, the girls turned these skills into businesses. They earned money, and this money provided for their own needs and supported their families. Nassuna Specioza - Asante Africa Foundation

• Art is a powerful tool to build confidence. Art assists in self-healing and builds conceptual skills and self-expression. Art is also an accessible medium to share stories and reclaim voices.

Our education and advocacy campaigns target both men and women. It is very important to include men in these initiatives because it is very common for people to talk only to the victims or survivors but not to the people who are creating the situations. Rosalía Pi?a Vélez - Chalk Back

• An effective strategy for building trust in educational settings is to place an elder, teacher, or other trusted adult in the “ HOT SEAT” and make them available to young people to ask questions or seek advice.
• Keep challenging the patriarchy. Patriarchy and societal gender exclusion are the enemy, NOT boys and men. We must teach our young men the value of empowered young women and how to walk alongside these women.

Change comes from within. The balloon will fly because of the air inside it, but it will soar high because of the air outside it. So we need to build what is inside these girls so that by the time they go outside, they can soar higher and higher. Abdikadir Ismail - Asante Africa Foundation Board Member & Male Ally

We emerge from International Women’s Month, and our panel discussion invigorated and optimistic about our mission to counter the root causes of gender inequalities. Join us as we continue challenging traditional societal expectations, roles, and behaviors related to gender that perpetuate inequality and discrimination. Together, we can enable thousands more young women to soar high and reach their full potential.

Erna Grasz is the CEO of Asante Africa Foundation. She can be reached at [email protected].

#GenderEquality #InspireInclusion #WomensMonth #WomensRights #InternationalWomensDay