The GirlsGain Project

Donate To This Campaign

A personal campaign sponsored by Art Wigchers.

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2022 Update: GirlsGain is GROWING!

Join us in spreading hope to the young women of Ethiopia.  GirlsGain has been such a success that we have expanded into more towns and villages, transforming lives for generations to come.  Your support doesn't change just one girl's life -- it changes her future children's and grandchildren's lives!
  
Ethiopia is a beautiful country located in the horn of Africa, with a very young population -- more than half of its 110 million people are 19 or younger.  While the constitution calls for equality, cultural challenges continue to exist.  Some of these harmful traditional practices that we are addressing are:
 
• Female genital mutilation
• Forced marriages often arranged at infancy
• Lack of emphasis on girls’ education
• Abductions of girls
• Unequal property rights for females

HOPE IS WITHIN REACH

COVID-19 has increased the challenges girls and young women face in Ethiopia.  The pandemic has made it more difficult to access clean water, obtain sanitary products, and find jobs.  More young girls and women are having to skip meals and are getting desperate in their search for survival.

With the COVID-19 challenge, we are adapting and accelerating our programs to reach more young girls and their families so they have the necessary tools.  We are adding 47 new kebeles (communities) to our program.  This is a tremendous step forward in that in addition to the 20 successful communities we have turned over to local government for operation, we have expanded our current operation to 75 communities.  We visited the first 20 communities twice in the past year and will continue to monitor their programs to confirm that local citizens and government are maintaining the programs to help girls,

This expansion provides:

• Training trainers (TOT)in the new communities to provide training that helps the girls and their families promote gender equality, girls’ empowerment, and girls’ education.  The girls learn about COVID-19, nutrition, sanitation and health matters in addition to gaining self-confidence in approaching their continuing education and livelihoods.
• Adding 8 new school water points for girls’ bathrooms and training on making reusable sanitary pads.
• Providing 1,400 vulnerable girls special in-kind and cash assistance to help them survive the COVID-19 situation.
• Continuing the monitoring of communities where the programs have been assumed by locals.

Our efforts have focused on empowering girls and women through education and micro-finance.  In the past seven years, the exceptional young local ladies leading GirlsGain and Girls Empowerment Programs have delivered life-changing information and services not only to thousands of Ethiopian girls and young women;  but, we are also providing tutoring and instruction to boys, scheduling discussions with their parents, and community members, and increasing understanding of how everyone benefits when girls are allowed opportunities to reach their potential.

YOU CAN HELP CHANGE GIRLS' LIVES 

We invite you to click on the links attached to this page to learn more about Ethiopia and the challenges girls face.  If you don't have the time to dig deeper into the issues but feel called to support this great work, click below to make a donation. 
  
Thank you!

Click here to support The GirlsGain Project>

ABOUT OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
 
We and many of our donors are longtime supporters of CRS. We work through this highly cost-effective organization to transform lives. Your donation is made directly and safely through CRS, our trusted partner.