Colonia High School’s new women’s empowerment club, Girl Up!, has been a huge success in the first few months since its introduction. Starting in January, club members meet weekly to discuss how to better promote women’s equality. Both female and male students have made Girl Up! one of the most popular groups at CHS – already attracting a great number of members in its inaugural months.
Recently, women’s rights issues have made national headlines as the #MeToo campaign sparked a domestic conversation about the treatment of females in the workplace. While the newly inspiring state of affairs in the United States bring about hope for the future, the continuously troubling problem of gender inequality is still found in many areas around the globe. Girl Up!‘s main goal is to both inform and inspire young girls to work towards ending this.
Weekly, on Wednesdays after school in Room 214, Girl Up! members engage in substantive debate on all issues female. Mrs. Ferreiro, the teacher in charge of organizing the club, bears witness to some of the most impassioned cries for equal rights from student activists. Ferreiro says, “The goal of Girl Up! is to raise awareness and funds to help and reach girls living in places where it is hardest to be a girl.”
Appropriately, the first major goal of the student organization is to raise funds through T-shirt sales for donations to women’s charities around the globe. During the holiday season, Girl Up! also conducted a successful holiday “holi-gram” sale. Through hard work, the club’s 40 plus members raised over $300 since December. These early successes have served as inspiration for female students at CHS, attracting a large number to meetings. Some of the most active members even happen to be boys.
Misri Patel, the Student President of Girl Up!, says, “[Girls] should join the club because here in the US we are blessed with amazing lives, [but] around the world many other females don’t even have an education. This club is to educate them about these girls and so they can make a difference in their lives.”
While Colonia’s Girl Up! is new and upcoming, various sister groups have taken shape across the world for almost a decade. The United Nations Foundation formed the first women’s empowerment club. It was first piloted in 2010, at various schools. Since, individual high-school affiliates have greatly helped countries such as Ethiopia and Guatemala advance education programs for female citizens. Worldwide, this club’s impact can now be felt.
Recently, according to the United Nations, Girl Up! has been helping fund UN programs which rebuild schools destroyed in Liberia’s devastating civil war. Young females there now have the opportunity to obtain an education, because of these efforts. Additionally, in the country of Malawi, the UN foundation is helping girls who are unable to afford the astronomical financial cost of primary school.
“Girl Up! is an organization “for girls, by girls,” voices member, Gianna Fantel. It is important to join, she says, as, “All of us may not know what it is like to be underprivileged, but nonetheless, there is a link that connects us all- being young women who want to change the world.” Truly, this club can make that a reality.
