Girl Pride International

GPI’s unique flagship initiative is the Ambassadors Scholarship Program, an all-encompassing program committed to the lifelong flourishing of GPI Ambassadors, elevating them into future community leaders by providing them with the resources they need to excel. It represents and embodies our deep and abiding commitment to the pursuit of scholarly endeavors in uplifting and serving communities globally. We look for applicants based on scholarship, service, and demonstrated need, and strive to cultivate future leaders who will proactively engage with and better their communities. Our inaugural Ambassadors Scholarship Program currently provides full academic scholarships to 40 elementary to secondary school students/ambassadors in the Samburu region of northern Kenya, with 10 ambassadors receiving additional financial scholarships.   By developing relationships with trustworthy grassroots organizations, we also offer direct support to communities, determining the best course of action for each environment. We focus on establishing high-quality and gender-sensitive curricula and learning materials, girl-friendly infrastructure, safety in schools and freedom from violence (which means including boy GPI Ambassadors as needful allies), and supporting girls’ leadership capabilities and their ability to make choices, with Ambassadors leading and participating in Community Building Projects which they determine themselves with guidance from GPI. One such Community Building Project is the development of maternity houses in GPI Samburu! As an international endeavor, GPI also aims for worldwide solidarity and camaraderie among Ambassadors. Through working with girls from different backgrounds and connecting them with resources and other girls around the globe, we foster intercultural dialogue and build bridges across borders. On a longer timescale, the Ambassadors Scholarship Program focuses on creating a global network of established and up-and-coming girls that will work together to help each other and the communities they come from. Rather than perpetuating a reckless trend of “voluntourism” and a “saviour complex”, GPI builds up girls who are culturally attentive to the needs and nuance of their homeland, giving them educational tools to continue a positive cycle of change in ways better than we could ourselves! In the Fall of 2021, GPI and our Girl Pride Samburu Chapter organized our first ever Ambassadors Induction Ceremony. We are proud to announce that 40 GPI Ambassadors, including boy allies, aged 7-18, from 1st to 12th grade, received 40 Ambassadorships, 40 tuition scholarships, with 10 Ambassadors received additional financial aid packages for the furthering of their educational career, helping build a foundation for their vocations and life journeys! In the coming months, we are working to expand our Ambassadors Scholarship Program into an annual event that will also include a “Model Ambassadors Scholarship,” where highly accomplished Ambassadors will receive additional renewable academic and financial scholarships, and will work towards helping train and lead other Ambassadors in organizing community building projects.        

Our Crossing Borders international pen-pal program connects students in the US with Syrian refugee girls living in Jordan and establishes relationships with migrant children from Central America who crossed our southern border. GPI is also motivating young female artists from impoverished backgrounds and recognizing their work with prized creative contests, creating an online community for these marginalized girls to share their stories, with a future GPI magazine in the works to share girls’ accomplishments worldwide! Through a series of writing workshops approved by Syosset School District, and in conjunction with Another Kind of Girl Collective, a media arts collective for and by young women living in displaced, migrant or transitory communities, we connected the community’s students with Syrian refugee children living in the Za’atari camp in Jordan, building mutual acceptance and respect for both worlds, and allowing students to connect, bond, and inspire one another. Crossing Borders was so impactful, the program coordinator at Za’atari camp wrote: “The personal connection and admiration conveyed in the letters are literally lifelines for some of the girls.” Since then, Crossing Borders has developed writing relationships with over 40 Syrian refugee girls in Jordan, connected with a community of Central-American migrant children in New Orleans, bonded with students in the Samburu Tribe of Kenya,  with much more to come!

We are establishing GPI chapters around the globe, like Girl Pride Samburu, our first chapter (recognized by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protections and the State Department of the Republic of Kenya), which is currently working closely with several local schools to purchase much-needed core-curriculum books, PPE, sanitary products, and solar lamps to keep students, particularly girls, engaged in learning.  Our conviction to be advocates for girls worldwide is poignantly exemplified by a recent intervention, where GPI fought hard to prevent the dropping out and child marriage of now 12 year old Lisano L., top of her 5th grade class in Kenya. By intervening in the courts, providing material assistance, and advocating for Lisano’s future, GPI has helped change the trajectory of Lisano’s life (who is now proudly a Girl Pride Ambassador). We are also planning to build libraries and additional classrooms in GPI Samburu, and are working with local government, businesses, and community leaders to better the community. Part of Girl Pride International’s work in GPI Samburu also involves building of maternity homes through our Community-Building Projects, a core aspect of our Ambassadors Scholarship Program, a flagship initiative which supports the lifelong development of GPI Ambassadors, members committed to serving their communities.