Across the developing world, young women continue to be suppressed into roles that prevent them from becoming leaders in their communities. Rates of violence and sexual assault against girls remain extremely high, while literacy and graduation rates among young women are low. A vast majority of sex and labor trafficking victims are young women, and forced adolescent marriage robs the futures of thousands.
These issues are not new, but we are addressing them in a new way. Goals for Girls uses soccer as a tool to teach life and leadership skills to young women in both the US and the developing world. Soccer teaches awareness, communication, teamwork, and goalsetting, and when paired with our curriculum, Goals for Girls empowers women to create tangible change in their own lives and in their communities.
This year, Goals for Girls is hosting it’s 4th Annual Leadership Summit in New Delhi, India. Attending this 4-day Summit are over 250 soccer-playing girls and coaches from across India, most of whom come from vulnerable backgrounds. Some come from areas rife with human trafficking, while others come from conservative religious communities where early arranged marriages are common. Many others come from urban slum areas and experience harsh living conditions. But every single girl attending our Summit is rich in potential, with the dignity, strength, and ability to make a lasting impact.
The Goals for Girls Leadership Summit empowers girls to access the strength they already have, to become their own advocates, and to become agents of change in their own community.
While at the Summit, teams in attendance will develop community change projects they will later implement to take on a challenge that exists within their home communities. In the past, team projects have ranged from community recycling projects, to tutoring girls vulnerable to trafficking, to neighborhood protests against child marriage and domestic violence (and many, many more). Using their own strength and the other young women they worked with, these girls boldly leave the Summit eager and prepared to make their communities better.
We need your help to make this Leadership Summit happen. There are 250 girls eager to attend this Summit who would happily pay for the trip themselves, but simply do not have the means. They need your support. Our initial goal covers the cost of all transport, lodging, food, and programming for 100 girls. Can you help?
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