[Saturday Support] Why you should join hands with VOICE 4 Girls to help at-risk girls

Last year, India was ranked as the worst place to be a woman amongst the Group of 20 nations in a pollof 370 gender specialists. On the other hand, although Indian women face significant discrimination in health and education, they can also play a powerful role in poverty alleviation. This is the crucial role that VOICE 4 Girls plays to break cyclical poverty.By providing education in English, financial literacy, health, and women’s rights, they believe that girls can change the status of women in society by impacting the perspective of her family, the family she marries in to, and her own children, reaching three generations and beyond. Since their inception in 2011, VOICE has worked to improve the status of over 1500 young girls across India.

The non-profit organization launched their first Campus in May 2011 as four-week summer camp that teaches English through lessons on topics such as health, nutrition, hygiene, reproduction, women’s rights, and body expression, hosted by affordable private schools for their girl students. Young women counselors and teachers run the camps, which builds their capacity in leadership and teaching. With camp and partner licensing fees, it’s a scalable business model that still allows VOICE 4 Girls to work closely with each school to conform to their needs.

This December, for the first time, VOICE will be running camp for 500 girls from the 73 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhayalaya (KGBV) schools in urban and rural Andhra Pradesh, which serve India’s most at-risk girls. Many of these students are orphaned and live below the poverty line. Their family situations have forced these girls to drop out at a young age, jeopardizing their futures. In addition, VOICE will work with over 5,000 girls from the Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society, and another 1,000 girls across rural Uttarakhand and in low-income private schools in Hyderabad this summer. 

To make this project come true, they are asking for help in order to raise $ 20,000 and set the camp. According to their campaign launched at the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, it costs around $ 20 for a girl to go to camp, or $ 600 for a batch of 30 campers. To each supporter, they offer perks which variates from VOICE eco-bags to T-shirts and personalized mugs. Not enough? You can also have a Skype call with the batch of VOICE campers and or even have a chance to meet the girls in the field.

What are you waiting to help them in this task? Raise your VOICE for adolescent girls` rights and click here to give your contribution or read more about the campaign.