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UK Programmes

Our work in the UK

Our UK programmes connect girls with their rights through advocacy and campaigning

Girls’ rights are global, and the challenges that affect girls are universal. From Cairo to Cardiff, girls are still held back from reaching their potential because of their gender. Our vision is to end girls’ invisibility through girl-led campaigning and advocacy.

As an international development charity, we believe there is huge value in translating our tried and tested programmes and approaches from around the world to a UK context, and recognising the universality of the issues affecting girls.

Our research findings reveal that girls in the UK are faced with specific challenges. They don’t feel safe in school, in the street or online, and where girls grow up significantly impacts their experiences and the fulfilment of their rights.

How we work with girls

We listen

Our Girl Centred Design approach applies a gendered lens to programming. ‘Find her’, ‘listen to her’ and ‘design with her’ ensures that our programmes respond to girls' needs.
Assistance

We partner

We seek to partner with local and national organisations, schools and youth clubs to reach girls and communities, so we can champion gender equality and girls can enjoy their rights.
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We learn

We develop expertise and research, continuously learning from girls to shape our programmes. We share our findings with the public and decision makers to challenge the systems that hold girls back.
A girl from our Champions of Wales programme

Champions of Wales

Champions of Wales is a uniquely powerful and innovative youth programme that works with girls and boys in four locations in Wales. Together, they're challenging gender inequality through campaigning and exploring how and where they can champion girls’ rights locally, using digital mapping tools.

The aim of the project is to challenge decision makers to champion girls’ rights. 

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Girls' Rights Network Wales

Across the UK, girls and young women continue to face the realities of gender inequality. They’re determined to make change happen – and we’re here to support them. In Wales, that means centring girls’ voices and experiences, and providing opportunities for them to shape society and their own lives. 

Our Girls' Rights Network Wales will bring professionals, volunteers, sector experts and organisations together, to share best practice, advocate for change and create a better Wales for girls and young women.

Youth activist Eva from the UK

Girls shout out

Girls Shout Out has provided a much-needed, safe space online for girls aged 13 to 25. This space has been especially important during the coronavirus crisis, as UK girls saw their lives turned upside down but continued to be left out of conversations about the pandemic.

Supported by The Body Shop UK, the project is the first time we’ve hosted conversations between UK girls in this way. From body image to street harassment, periods and mental health, we’ve been hearing from girls on the issues that matter to them.

The pilot stage of Girls Shout Out ended in December 2020.

Kiah-Ann, 17, Nottingham

Let's talk. Period

As a result of our ground-breaking 2018 report Break the Barriers we partnered with Brook, a young people's health and wellbeing charity, to tackle the 'toxic trio' of period poverty through the Let’s talk. Period project.

Funded by the Department of Media, Culture and Sport’s Tampon Tax Fund, the project set out to break down the barriers to accessing products, develop best practice in period education and increase local action in tackling period shame and stigma. The project finished in March 2020.

Find out more about the project, its research and legacy.

Tanya, 21, from Birmingham

The State of Girls’ Rights in the UK

In 2016, our ground-breaking report on girls’ rights in the UK revealed that, despite living in one of the richest countries in the world, girls often didn’t feel safe at school, in the street or online.

At the turn of the decade, we listened to girls again – and they told us they’re continuing to face very real threats to their safety in public, sexism in school and a lack of control over their bodies – and their experiences are still not being listened to.