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Girl Up Project Awards allow any youth advocate around the world to apply for funding up to $1,000 USD to apply towards a project that they are passionate about, and make their visions for social change a reality.
Working alongside awardees and providing guidance on utilizing their leadership skills and project design including SMART Goals, team building, and budgeting, Girl Up continues to be committed to supporting youth ideas, dreams, and goals toward gender justice. The Project Awards fund helps these leaders pursue these projects by covering most, if not all, of the project finances. Applicant criteria, selection guidelines, additional resources, and reporting guidelines provided to awardees can now be found in Girl Up’s Project Award Resource.
Girl Up’s 2023 Project Award Class represents 50 awardees from 9 U.S states and 25 countries including Canada, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leon, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kuwait, Morocco, Tukey, the UK, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Honduras.
This Class represents Girl Up’s diverse community with a range of project topics and varying levels of involvement within Girl Up’s movement, from new Club Leaders to Teen Advisors.
Read on to meet some of the members of the 2023 Class and discover their inspiring ideas for change!
Habiba A., Canada (Mental Health)
YouthWell United aims to be a network of youth in the Greater Toronto Area, hereafter referred to as the GTA, working to improve wellness, education, and social awareness in youth and in-need communities. Their aim is to help in-need youth in difficult situations/struggling communities through familiar media, youth-specific resources and unique youth-led programs. The program specifically supported by the Project Awards Fund will include a Care Packages Program which will include toys, books, a Mental Health Journal, a Coloring Book, Mental Health Pamphlet, Activity Booklet (made by YouthWEll United Team), Stickers, and Card/craft made by our volunteers. It also will support an arts and crafts program and donation drives.
Catherine A., Nigeria (Sports)
The Sport Boot Camp is a transformative program dedicated to empowering young female athletes in Ibadan North, Oyo State. Over the course of two action-packed days, this fitness initiative aims to nurture self-esteem, confidence, and leadership abilities while combatting the increase of young girls dropping out of sports. Catherine’s focus is on students in grades 7–12, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds who lack access to these opportunities.
Ikhtiyor A., Tajikistan (Climate)
The “Empowering Environmental Voices” project seeks to provide 30 girls and women in Tajikistan with the opportunity to express themselves through creative writing while focusing on the crucial topic of environmental justice. The course duration-2 months (online and offline). Through this free course, participants will not only enhance their creative writing skills but also learn to be advocates for environmental change, amplifying their voices for a sustainable future.
Anisha S., Bangladesh (STEM)
GreenTechGirls Challenge: Empowering Environmental Innovators- is a project that will help create AI chatbots/ an app to help inform green practices in communities. These eco-friendly practices include tips and tricks for recycling and other sustainable living tips. Anisha will also host an event about how they are creating the AI tools within the app to further teach the community about how they to can create tangible STEM solutions in their community.
Saranya S., USA (Education)
Women in Debate is a 501(c)(3) national student-led, non-profit that supports gender minorities in the debate space through free mentoring, scholarships, articles, and events. Saranya applied to the Project Awards to help with the entry fee and travel-related funds for different debates throughout the school year so that they could continue to combat the low-income gender minority statistics in the debate space to ensure that all women’s voices continued to be included in all debate spaces.
Michelle T., Malawi (SRHRJ)
Michelle’s SRHRJ project will facilitate raising awareness surrounding period myths and also facilitate hands-on training on sewing pads. This training will be given to women (10 in total). The sewing of pads will be facilitated by Michelle’s club members and is hoping to reach at least 50 girls from different upper primary school and secondary schools who will then act as a champion on issues related to menstrual hygiene. They hope these soon-to-be champions in various schools will then be able to conduct the same training on sewing pads and spread awareness.
Want to learn more about our 2023 Project Awardees? Click here!
