GIF holds a series of projects and forums for girls to learn about policies that affect their lives, to gain skills, and to develop cross-cultural relationships with girls around the world who are all working to improve the lives of girls.
2006 International Girls Summit
Listen to Girls and Imagine the Possibilities…
Imagine girls sharing as equals in decision-making about issues most important to them.
Imagine girls gaining leadership tools to improve their lives and the lives of people worldwide.
Imagine a diverse, global delegation of girls creating a 21st Century Girls’ Platform for Action, sparking a movement involving thousands of girls worldwide.
That is exactly what happened! GIF was awarded a $200,000 matching grant from the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to host an International Girls Summit. The Summit took place in Minnesota July 8-16, 2006. The primary aims of the Summit were to call attention to global issues facing girls and women, develop community-based action projects to address them, and create bonds among the attendees that will strengthen and inspire them as they grow.
A diverse, national steering committee of 15 girls (ages 12-18) developed and organized all aspects of the Summit project. This committee reached out to their international peers with the goal of uniting them in global efforts to improve lives. They recruited teams (each team includes five girls and two women mentors) from around the world. Teams came from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Indonesia, Israel, India, and the United States and worked together to create the Girls Platform for Action.
Each team added their unique community-based project to the Girls Platform for Action. These projects ran the gamut: From creating a girl-directed documentary exposing gender-based violence in South Africa, to peer- tutoring for children without schools due to natural disasters in Indonesia. Throughout the week, the teams of girls learned and practiced the skills needed to return to their communities to change policies that will improve lives of girls. They left the Summit with detailed year-long action projects that they are now hard at work implementing in their communities, with the support of their Women Mentors. The passion for action fueled this gathering and immeasurable benefits of idea-sharing, and cultural exchange were no small complement to the Summit’s success.
Click here to Meet the International Teams
2006 Global Girls Day
Girls addressed worldwide issues on Global Girls Day
Global On Saturday June 23rd, Girls International Forum (GIF) hosted the 2nd annual Global Girls Day event at Macalester Collage in St. Paul, Minnesota. For this event, Girl Summit Leaders facilitated workshops on girls education, human trafficking, gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS.
Presenters from the Minnesota AIDS Project, Asian Media Access, TVByGirls, Civil Society, WATCH, and New Moon Magazine all helped make the day a great success!
Girls participated in day-long workshops to learn more about global issues and work together to create active solutions. The girls came up with some great solutions, such as theater, poetry, writing letters to policy-makers and using images to build awareness and support among legislators and the public to advocate for change. The day closed with an ice cream social and a West African and Hip-Hop dance performance.
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Girls' Declaration of Sentiments
In 1998, 15 girls from across the United States came to Seneca Falls, New York, to participate in the 150th Anniversary Celebration of the first National Women's rights convention and to draft a Girls Declaration of Sentiments. Crafted with input from hundreds of girlsthrough surveys and forums, the girls Declaration of Sentiments was presented at the Convention's clsoing ceremonies and entered into the Congressional Record.
Full Declarations of Sentiments Here
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