International Day of the Girl Child, observed on October 11, is a day declared by the UN to recognize the power of girls everywhere and to highlight, discuss, and take action to advance the rights of, and opportunities for, girls across the globe. This day highlights the unique challenges girls face, such as limited access to education, nutrition, and healthcare, as well as issues like discrimination, violence, and forced child marriage. It also celebrates the progress made in addressing these challenges and emphasizes the importance of girls’ leadership in the solutions.
At Together Women Rise, we are dedicated to advancing gender equality, and on International Day of the Girl Child, we proudly amplify the voices of girls from around the world who are boldly taking action to shift discriminatory gender beliefs and practices and live to their full potential!
Special Events
Thursday, October 10 – Girls as Agents of Change
Time: Noon ET / 9 am PT
Master of Ceremonies: Beverley Francis-Gibson – CEO of Together Women Rise
Moderator: Jasmine Anouna – founder of The Bloom
Panelists:
- Ya’ara Tal – A Jewish Israeli participant with Tomorrow’s Women
- Amal – a Gazan participant with Tomorrow’s Women
- Ariadna Beneventi – a She’s the First Girl Activist Fellow from Chile
- Nakabuye Hilda Flavia (Hilda) – a Ugandan climate and environmental rights activist and member of the Steering Committee for the Youth Climate Justice Fund
Special Guest: Ariana Lee – poet who will create and perform an original piece specifically for this event.
Our panelists will share their stories of how they are taking action to create systemic change, show resilience, and engage in decision-making with regard to peace-building, climate justice, and conflict.
This event is free and open to all, but registration is required.
REGISTER HERE
Jasmine Anouna – The Bloom (Panel Moderator)
Jasmine is the CEO of The Bloom, the largest learning platform in the world for social impact careers, offered at leading universities from South Africa, to UK. As an Italian-Egyptian-American impact entrepreneur, she’s driven by a passion for deep listening and building bridges across ideas, people, and cultures. For Jasmine’s focus on diversity and intersectionality in social impact directly supporting +45,000 impact professionals, she was officially welcomed in 2022 to the prestigious Goalkeepers community of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She’s the creator of an upcoming card game Cards for Courage TM, an impact-driven game like UNO for meaningful connections, going live Nov 2024.
Nakabuye Hilda Flavia (Hilda) — Youth Climate Justice Fund
Hilda is a Ugandan climate, gender and environmental rights activist who founded Fridays for Future Uganda – a youth-led and organized global climate strike movement. Every Friday, she works toward building a safer and healthier environment by rallying governments, corporate organizations and communities to take climate action. She has visited schools around the world, mobilizing students to use their voices to make a difference. Flavia Nakabuye is also a public speaker, writer, Future Girl Rising fellow and member of the C40 Global Youth and Mayors Forum. She leads shore cleanup at Lake Victoria, empowering lakeshore communities to learn how to protect lakes and fight against plastic pollution. Watch a brief video HERE
Amal – Tomorrow’s Women
(Note: Amal prefers not to share her last name or photo for security reasons, and she will be using a translator)
Amal is an entrepreneur, community facilitator, and advocate for women’s rights from Gaza. She worked as a community mobilizer for UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, which is currently supporting struggling pregnant Palestinian women. Amal is also the Tomorrow’s Women Palestinian coordinator, leading programs such as Gaza Girls and Herstory which empower Gazan women to grow as leaders and strong communicators, engage in community peacebuilding projects, and amplify the voices of Gazan women globally.
Amal is from the Al-Briej camp in the central Gaza Strip. Stranded in Cairo, Egypt for the last year since the war began, Amal established the Sanad Initiative (sanad means support in Arabic), a volunteer-based program helping Gazans stuck in Egypt with urgent, basic needs such as clothing, food, housing, and medicine, as well as emotional support through facilitated sessions building connection and community. Amal has also organized sending aid packages to more than 50 families inside Gaza.
Ya’ara Tal – Tomorrow’s Women
Ya’ara Tal is a project manager at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, leading the Sport in the Service of Peace program. The program includes projects that bring together Jewish Israelis and Palestinians on the football pitch to develop leadership, team building, and conflict management skills using sports methodologies. The projects run in elementary schools, football teams, and community centers across Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Previously, Ya’ara worked for J Street, OneVoice Movement, and the Israeli Embassy in South Korea.
Ya’ara grew up in Kibbutz Dorot in the southern part of Israel next to Gaza. She joined Tomorrow’s Women in 2008 and stayed connected to the organization through several leadership roles. Tomorrow’s Women awarded Ya’ara and a Palestinian counterpart scholarships at the University of Oregon where she majored in international studies. During her time there, Ya’ara and her partner spoke publicly about their lives in Israel and Palestine and their hopes for a future of co-existence and peace.
Ariadna Beneventi – She’s the First
In 2022, Ariadna, a 19-year-old student and activist from Chile, founded the non-profit organization Intransigentes. This organization empowers and trains youth to be changemakers and promoters of life without gender violence to their peers. Ariadna’s goal is to promote youth participation in activities and decision-making spaces to eradicate gender violence.
Ariadna is a She’s the First Girl Activist Fellow and a member of the Girl Advisory Council. She’s also a Girl Rising ambassador and part of the Girl Up community.
Ariana Lee (Poet)
Ariana Lee is the 7th Houston Youth Poet Laureate and two-time member of Meta4 Houston, the #1 ranked youth slam poetry team at Brave New Voices 2023. Lee has opened for US Poet Laureate Ada Limón and performed original work for NASA, the NCAA, Stop AAPI Hate, the Aspen Institute, the Houston Mayor’s Office, and more. Her work appears in The Offing, Defunkt Magazine, and more. She is an undergraduate student at Stanford University.
Friday, October 11 – Give to Women and Girls Day
Time: 10:30 am / 7:30 am PT
While nearly 50,000 U.S. organizations are dedicated to women and girls, the Women & Girls Index (WGI) consistently shows that less than 2% of all philanthropic support goes to these organizations.
Together Women Rise is partnering with Women’s Philanthropy Institute, Amplify Her® Foundation, and other organizations to host a Give to Women and Girls Day celebration at New-York Historical Society, to call attention to the gap in philanthropic support for women and girls — using this moment to galvanize awareness and funding.
Join us live in-person in New York or livestream the event. This event is free and open to all, but registration is required.
REGISTER HERE
Special Giving Opportunity
On October 11th — International Day of the Girl Child and Give to Women & Girls Day — Together Women Rise will launch our 2024 annual appeal with a special giving opportunity. Thanks to several generous donors, all donations made between October 11 and October 31 will be matched up to $100,000! This is a perfect time to support women and girls globally.