A gaggle of girls on a dried-up soccer field in the late afternoon laughing and dancing might look like a group of kids just being kids, but these groups can serve a greater purpose than fun just for the sake of it. The girls grab each other’s hands and step backward, all the while joyously chanting, “Big circle! Big circle! Big circle!”. An older woman amongst them jumps into the center and proceeds to show off her dance moves while everyone sings and claps. Following her lead, girls take turns jumping into the center with grins on their faces. After everyone has taken the stage, they sit down together in the shade.
The older woman introduces the topic of menstrual hygiene and begins answering the girl’s questions. This is just one of the many ways Girls’ Action Forum meetings can go. Sometimes mentors help girls start gardening projects, practice sewing, or discuss effective birth control methods. What matters is that for girls, Girls’ Action Forum is a vehicle to gain the skills and knowledge to have the life they dream of.
This June, Shanta’s four Zambian partner villages (Siyowi, Nachili, Kabanje, and Mpasu) launched Girls’ Action Forum (GAF). This program centers around creating a safe, inclusive space for young girls to be themselves and learn from trusted mentors. People’s Action Forum (PAF), the Zambian organization that partners with Shanta, developed this program ten years ago and has been successfully implementing GAF in seven districts across Zambia. It operates by bringing groups of girls together with trained schoolteachers and community mentors in their home village. Through lessons, skills training, and just having fun, GAF helps to increase retention and enrollment in school as well as reduce the rate of child marriage and early pregnancies.
A major strength of GAF is that it operates in two environments. The first is after school with GAF groups facilitated by teachers. The second is in the community with trained mentors who live in the same context and know the girls and their families on a different level. What this means is if a GAF girl drops out of school, the community mentor can follow up directly with the girl and her family, ask questions about why the girl is dropping out, and offer support. If teachers were to do this, it would be overstepping. Additionally, girls who have already dropped out of school can still join community GAFs and learn valuable skills and knowledge. For a girl like Melody, GAF is her path back to education and eventually fulfilling her dream of being a teacher.
Melody, a 16-year-old from Nachili, shared that she dropped out of school when her grandmother suddenly got sick. Her family needed her to take on additional responsibilities at home when her grandmother was eventually moved to a hospital. There simply wasn’t enough time in the day for Melody to finish grade 7 and help keep her family afloat. So, Melody had to leave behind her dream of finishing primary school and pursuing a career as a teacher. Now with GAF running in Nachili, Melody is discovering that being a teacher could still be in her future. She shared that GAF’s emphasis on the importance of education keeps her thinking about how she can stay motivated to get back on track.
In just over two months, more than 140 girls have enrolled in GAF across Shanta’s partner villages facilitated by PAF. Many of them dream of finishing or reentering school and going on to have successful careers as doctors, nurses, pilots, and teachers.
