Ga-Rankuwa, December 08, 2018. On the 8th of December 2018, the ACFE Group selected a cohort that will be the first to benefit from the ‘Educate the Girl Child Campaign’ in South Africa. Selected from disadvantaged backgrounds of ages between 14 and 17, some of these girls are orphans, or disabled or come from nuclear families, and with an average academic potential. During the December 08th visit, we engaged with students through our leadership program. Our theme for this engagement was “Reclaiming the strong woman in me” and this session provided a platform where these girls could speak about the struggles they are facing as girl children growing up in marginalized communities. We believe by sharing their stories, they support each other and find confidence in who they are and where they belong. From 2019, they will advance through a leadership development program alongside their education program. The leadership program will focus on emotional development, coaching, mentoring and entrepreneurship training.
Conversations ranged from redefining the standard of beauty, claiming one’s voice and making a statement about the type of women they would like to be. This session was therefore a beginning of a journey of becoming that kind of woman. The girls expressed that they were left with a “sense of purpose” and they now realized that they have more to offer and more to look forward to than just getting married and having children.
These engagements will continue throughout 2019 where we will be exposing these girls to mentors like women with careers in STEM, Construction, Business, and other as relevant to their ambitions. They will also have a chance to learn from Speakers in South Africa and from around the world. ACFE Group aims to continue with this cohort of girls until they enter university, so we can be able to see and measure the impact of this campaign and its related activities. We believe in the importance of this campaign because we know that educating girls helps to create a future of empowered women in society, leadership and sustainable families.
In 2015, the ACFE Group launched an international campaign, the 'Educate the Girl-Child Campaign' in partnership with the Embassy of Botswana in Zimbabwe. The campaign which aims to create awareness about and to take responsibility for the inclusive and sustainable education of girls, was initially focused on advocacy and raising strong voices in support of girls, triggered as a response and action to end child marriages and other gender related issues that affect girl children in our communities.
The campaign is taking a new approach, raising funds to support the educational and leadership dreams of girls who come from poor families and communities. Most girls have no access to education due to lack of education funds. The goals of this campaign are to create and sustain opportunities for access to education for girls, and to ensure school completion for girls.