Global Girl Project was founded in 2014 by Julia Lynch, who saw a gap: there were a number of leadership and exchange opportunities for girls from the Minority World, but none for girls from the Majority World. Global Girl Project was born as a way to fill that gap and to offer high-quality innovative leadership programmes and cultural exchanges to marginalised girls from the Majority World.
Our first exchange program started with just one girl from a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil who travelled on a plane for the first time and found herself in Los Angeles, about to have an experience that changed her life forever. What started with one girl, grew into three and then to five, and eventually to eight girls each year, who travelled from places like Haiti, Rwanda and Pakistan to Nepal to learn how to be leaders and changemakers in their own communities. Through the 5-week program in Nepal and the 10-month pre and post exchange programming, these young women were mobilised to think about real and long-lasting social change through projects they then implemented in their own communities.
“We at Global Girl Project know that real and long lasting change for a community is most successful when it comes from within that community. ”
The Program
The Global Girl Leadership Training and Cultural Exchange Program was both educational and experiential. During the 6 months leading up to the exchange our scholars participated in monthly online programming to help prepare them for the exchange. During the 5-week program in Nepal, the participants:
travelled to Nepal with other exchange program students and were exposed to different cultures, ideas, languages and ways of living
participated in educational workshops that helped them to think 'outside the box' and start to see possibilities for the future that they may never have considered before
developed a plan for education and development projects that they took home and implemented in their own community.
AND then they returned home to implement and run their very own projects for at least a 3-month period of time, creating real impactful community change.
During the 4 months after their return home the scholars also participated in monthly online sessions that ensured they were supported every step of the path towards becoming community leaders!
Finally, once they completed their community project implementation, they received a one-time grant to help support their ongoing education.
Since 2014 our in-person exchange has developed and given way to our ecosystem building approach of interconnected leadership programs.