Welcome to Day 5 of the #11DaysofAction, sponsored by The BRAVE Institute and The Coalition for Adolescent Girls!

 The BRAVE Institute will be leading a two part campaign of consciousness raising and direct action, both focused on girls health, specifically menstrual hygiene. While The Coalition for Adolescent Girls will show how evidence powers progress for Girls’ Education. 

Check below for their each organizations plans for the day:

THE BRAVE INSTITUTE

First, the BRAVE team will be on Instagram all day, @thebrave_institute, to teach and learn about girls health and menstrual hygiene. We will be advocating for and taking action #withgirlsforgirls! And, we want YOU to join the action! Tell us how are you advocating for and taking action with girls for girls! Tag us @_livingbrave! And use our hashtags #liveBRAVE #withgirlsforgirls #girlsarebrave #advocacyforaction 

Next, we will be publishing and disseminating our Girls Health Digital Toolkit on Saturday October 5th. It will be available on our website and promoted on our social media platforms, too. To add your favorite resources or personal testimony to our Girls Health Digital Toolkit please submit content to mdavis@thebraveinstitute.org and our team will update the living document housing this Girls Health archive. 

Included in our Girls Health Digital Toolkit is our BRAVE Health Curriculum (2019) that was developed over the past two years by the BRAVE team. We have implemented this curriculum with many girls, K-12, across many of our programs. Each time we collected feedback from the girls who participated and with their expertise we were able to build a curriculum that has had a powerful, beautiful and positive impact on the girls within The BRAVE Institute. And, now, we are ready to share a copy with you – available on Saturday October 5th only!

And, finally, our BRAVE family has made it a goal – in honor of this day of action and the International Day of the Girl, to collect 1,000 menstrual hygiene products by October 11th that we will donate to partners serving girls in NYC. 

We are calling on you to join us! Let’s get to work! 

Here’s a little bit more about our organization:

Our mission at The BRAVE Institute is to inspire and challenge humans to be brave and self-empowered contributors to a better world. 

As a team, we contribute to an increase in awareness and inspired action around topics of human rights, social justice, and feminism through the vehicles of education, mentoring, leadership development and direct service. Through a variety of programs, projects and initiatives we partner with over 34 schools and organizations and work with over 2,500 students both in the United States and around the world. Some outstanding projects include our Service Learning Trip to the Dominican Republic, our college internship program, and the annual BRAVE conference we host each Spring.

The BRAVE team is committed to maintain sight of what matters most; humans and their journey of discovering and becoming their best selves. At our best and bravest, we can and will contribute even more peace and love to make our world better. Together, we will continue to learn, lead, lend and love everyday. On behalf of the entire BRAVE team, we are so grateful to all those who contribute to and support our mission and work. We are so proud of all that we have been able to accomplish and we look forward to all of the new and wonderful obstacles ahead.

THE COALITION FOR ADOLESCENT GIRLS 

Evidence Powers Progress for Girls’ Education
As girls grow up, the education they did or did not receive can have long-term effects on different aspects of their health and wellbeing, and their transitions into the workforce. But school attendance is only part of the battle. Over time, the gender gap in school attendance has narrowed. More than 250 million children and adolescents are not attending school worldwide, and girls are still more likely than boys to never enroll in school. Not every child who attends school completes primary school, and secondary school completion lags far behind. And grade attainment does not equate learning. More than 30 percent of young people who have completed primary school do not have basic literacy skills, and girls are still more disadvantaged than boys.

Across low- and middle-income countries, the Coalition for Adolescent Girls’ member organizations are implementing and testing different approaches to learn how to best improve educational outcomes for girls. Evidence generated from these implementation efforts can point the way to the most effective interventions that work to increase school enrollment and grade completion, improve the quality of education, and help girls’ transitions into the workforce. Read on for more information on how Coalition for Adolescent Girls members are powering progress in girls’ education. And join the conversation on Twitter by tweeting @CAG_org.

CAG Member Spotlight
Making Cents International
To bridge the gap between education and employment, Making Cents International engages youth in
workforce development and asset-building interventions. In eSwatini, Making Cents created a
curriculum focused on building entrepreneurial skills in adolescent girls and young women, especially
those who had been economically destabilized by HIV/AIDS.

Population Council
With funding from Echnida Giving, the Council is mapping the major players in the girls’ education
ecosystem, an effort that spans program implementers, policymakers, advocates, donors and
researchers. Ultimately, this project will help those working to improve girls’ education forge
partnerships, share learnings, and develop new ideas. At the same time, Council researchers are
undertaking a systematic review of the evidence on what works to improve girls’ education.
If you work in the global girls’ education space, please take the Council’s brief survey to help improve
their efforts to identify and connect practitioners in the field.

Zana Africa
Working in Kenya for over a decade, Zana Africa Foundation provides girls with menstrual and
reproductive health and education (MHRE) resources, including a curriculum and a magazine, as well as
sanitary pads and underwear. Zana strives to create fun written products where girls can seek answers
about their changing bodies, since Kenya does not mandate a formalized reproductive health
curriculum. Zana’s program is being evaluated to test whether MHRE and menstrual product provision
influences educational outcomes.