Girl Rising

logo

Website

girlrising.com

Countr(ies)

India, Nigeria, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the United States

Grade Level of Students Participating

All ages (depending on the partner); Girl Rising’s curriculum is available for upper elementary, middle, and high school students. The curriculum has also been adapted by individual professors for use on college campuses.


Internationally, custom curricula and facilitators guides are created for students, as well as their teachers, parents, and community leaders, depending on the nature of the partnership and program goals.

Number of Students Participating per Year

As Girl Rising’s reach includes a large network of grassroots supporters, it is difficult to gauge the exact number of students reached through the organization’s programming. Examples of current impact numbers include:

  • 4,800+ educators from more than 120 countries and all 50 U.S. states have registered for the Girl Rising Curriculum. 1,200+ Educator Edition DVDs have been purchased.
  • 21,500 and counting educational, grassroots and corporate screenings reaching 300,000+ members in communities worldwide.
  • 300 students between the ages of 11 and 15 reached through a Girl Rising pilot program in Brooklyn, NY in 2016. The program has potential to expand to reach 300 more students.
  • 100 adolescent groups in India met monthly to discuss issues about girls’ education, child labor, child marriage, the benefits of girls’ education, and the role they can play in bringing about gender equality.
  • 30 adolescent girls and boys participated in a 3-day filmmaking workshop in Rajasthan where they created 2 new films highlighting the barriers to that hold girls back in their communities.
  • 240 sports events held in two Indian states
  • Nearly 12,000 families reached in two Indian states to build awareness on the many benefits of girls’ education.
  • Over 500 out-of-school girls enrolled within the first 5 months of the program activities in northern Nigeria

The reach of Girl Rising’s mass media efforts extend into the millions of potential impressions: 200M+ households reached during CNN International broadcasts in 100 countries, 11 million households reached through multiple TV broadcasts in the DRC, 8 million people reached in a media-dark area of the DRC through mobile cinema projects, and a broadcast is set to reach over 10 million people through Satellite and State television in northern Nigeria.

 

 

Year Organization Began

2013

Relationship to the public education system

The program works both in and outside of schools by pairing the Girl Rising film, which focuses on the value of girls’ education, with an accompanying curriculum; each lesson takes 3-5 class periods but can be adapted to different purposes and classroom subjects. Girl Rising also brings speakers to classrooms throughout the U.S. and around the world through their partnership with Hearts on Fire and Skype in the Classroom. Their book, Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time was published in February 2017.

Organization’s Vision and Mission

 

Girl Rising is a global campaign for girls’ education and empowerment. Girl Rising uses storytelling, such as a feature film and other media tools, to change the way the world values the girl, ensure that girls’ education is part of the mainstream conversation, and to prompt individuals to take action to the tackle the barriers that have long kept girls from achieving their dreams.

 

 

Brief Description of Program Activities

Together with partners, Girl Rising launches high profile campaigns to bring visibility to the issues girls face and inspire people to dismantle the barriers that hold them back.

Girl Rising:

  • Tells powerful and inspiring stories in the form of feature films, short videos and more.
  • Form diverse partnerships across all sectors to unlock resources and scale change for lasting impact.
  • Provide a social action platform that gives people around the world tangible ways to take action.

Girl Rising, in collaboration with the Pearson Foundation, created the curriculum to introduce students to the issues surrounding girls’ education in the developing world. It is free and Common Core-aligned. There are three different versions available: for upper elementary students, middle school students, and high school students. The high school version of the curriculum can be adapted by professors for use on college campuses.

“Through developing a better understanding of how family dynamics, poverty, political unrest, economic stability, and community expectations intersect to keep girls either in or out of school,” they hope that students' views of the world will evolve.

In the US, Girl Rising partnered with the Brooklyn South Borough Field Support Center to bring the Girl Rising film, curriculum, and Teacher’s Guide’s to 25 public middle schools. After a successful pilot in spring 2016, the GEM (girls’ empowerment movement) program expanded to schools around New York City

 

Program Content: Intrapersonal Competencies

Social responsibility, cultural awareness, global citizenship

Program Content: Interpersonal Competencies

Empathy/perspective taking

Program Content: Cognitive Competencies

Critical thinking, problem solving, analysis, interpretation

Program Content: Attitudes and Values

Empowerment of girls, attitude toward girls and girls education

Program Content: Pedagogy/Active Engagement of Students

The curriculum uses project-based learning and action learning approaches to encourage students to engage with political, cultural, historical, and geographic issues related to educating girls and to “think about their role as global citizens and their responsibilities to their own communities.”

The lessons are designed to work with film chapters. The feature film includes stories from Egypt, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Peru, Ethiopia and Cambodia. Three of these chapters – Suma from Nepal, Ruksana from India, and Senna from Peru – are available for free online with curriculum registration. The film and the curriculum tells stories of empowerment through the eyes of girls.

Additional Notes

Some of Girls Rising's current and past partners include: UN Foundation / Girl Up, Intel, HP, Brookings, CNN, STAR TV, Ford Foundation, Google, USAID, CARE, World Vision, Plan, Partners in Health, CIEE, Alicia Keys / We Are Here, Freida Pinto, Priyanka Chopra, The George Washington University, Save the Children, First Lady Michelle Obama and the Obama administration, the Government of India and many more.

Relevant Links

Girl Rising Overview Brief

Girl Rising Impact Overview

Girl Rising Curriculum

Reference List

All information on this table comes from Girl Rising’s website, and a phone conversation with the organization in May 2016.

Prepared by

Ashley Lee