What’s happening with a Girl & her world?
Lots! Thank you for connecting with us if this is the first time you’ve received a newsletter, and to those who have been with us for a while, we value your friendship and know the journey is made richer by walking it together!
The first half of this year (how is it September already?) has been big. At last count we are supporting 38 girls to get back to or stay in school, and most of their families with income generating projects. And we’re pretty proud of that!
We’re a team of volunteers, meeting over Skype from around our dining tables on the weekends and managing our programs whilst juggling kids and jobs, study and travel to our projects, taking every opportunity along to way to network professionally, slip people our cards and tell them how much we love what we do! So thank you for your patience if a receipt hasn’t made it on time or there’s been a glitch somewhere along the way.
A sweet face peeks out from behind her front door
This year so far, we’ve visited Fiji and watched the amazing
Urmila in action as she oversees the new team she has built around her in rural RakiRaki. They are policemen and teachers, community workers and mums, all committed to creating opportunities for girls in their region. They’re amazing.
Jane has also visited parts of Papua New Guinea and particularly in Bougainville, there are opportunities to expand what we are doing there which we are really excited about!
Urmila has hosted more students from the German International School in Sydney, one of our greatest supporters, and they put their fundraising money to work as they assisted Urmila in the design and set up of income-generating projects for families. You can read
one girl’s experience here.
We know all too closely that sexual violence is perpetrated against girls at a horrifying rate in the Pacific and in April North Sydney Sunrise Rotary gave us a cheque so we could host a community workshop addressing this topic.
Urmila and the team were able to communicate what families and teachers can do to report these acts and get support and counselling. We are really grateful for the support of organisations like Rotary who come alongside us.
We started $5 Fridays which have been a lot of fun! For the price of a smoothie with lunch, many of you have donated before midnight one Friday and made a difference to needs such as travel passes at the start of the term (one of the many barriers to education), or medical expenses for a mum who couldn’t work and support her daughter to stay in school without help. So a big Vinaka!
What’s happening now?
On September 22nd, we will be running for our girls in the Sydney Bridge Run! We are hoping to raise several thousand dollars and we’d love your support! Click
here to donate, or simply go to our
Give page and mark your donation ‘Bridge Run’. I’m no runner but as I train I think of the girls and their stories and I am motivated to keep going!
Girls love to have their pics taken the world over!
What’s happening soon?
It’s International Day of the Girl on October 11th and we are very excited to join forces with
Get Real Live radio show in an interview to launch the e-book ‘Behind the Smiles’.
Jane has written about her time living and working in Fiji and you’ll be able to pre-order ‘Behind the Smiles’ in support of our girls. We’ll let you know about this in the next few weeks!
Kym takes the opportunity as she crosses the finish line last year to highlight our logo on her cap!
Christmas is not really that far away! The decorations are up in the shops already and from next month we will start taking orders for our lush Nigella inspired caked and a few extra goodies this year!
Thank you again for your ongoing support, a few weeks ago we heard from a teacher in a rural Aussie school of 29 kids who wants to be involved, we’d love to hear how what we’re doing resonates with YOU in your world…
Warmly,
Team ‘a Girl & her world’
