5 minute read
From Dream Job to GLOBAL IMPACT
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAYTON MCGRIFF
How Payton McGriff’s Nonprofit is Transforming Education in Togo
BY CHEREEN LANGRILL
“Until every girl and woman can flourish, SHE persists.”
That phrase, on the home page for Style Her Empowered, reflects the powerful work achieved by this seven-year-old nonprofit. But it could just as easily be used to describe the tenacity of its founder, Payton McGriff.
McGriff launched Style Her Empowered (SHE) in 2017. At the time, she was a senior at the University of Idaho and used the $35,000 she was awarded from winning entrepreneurial competitions for seed money to start SHE. As of September, the organization has provided 8,095 education sponsorships for girls in the African country of Togo. In addition to school uniforms, SHE provides school fees, supplies, and tutoring. Its reach expands beyond education. SHE has two factories in Togo, and it has created 33 jobs for women in that community.
Yet it almost didn’t happen. McGriff, now 30, was on the cusp of landing her dream job in marketing analytics in the spring of 2017. She had an assignment to create a business or nonprofit for an entrepreneurship class. McGriff thought about an idea she had to provide school uniforms after reading the book “Half the Sky” as a sophomore.
“Growing up in Idaho, we have such a limited view of what it means to be a woman in the world,” she said. “So much of this book is about finding opportunity in times of adversity.”
A statistic in that book stayed with McGriff: 129 million girls around the world aren’t enrolled in school.
She was surprised to learn that school uniforms are a significant barrier to education. Many families can’t afford uniforms, which are often required in schools around the world.
McGriff started thinking about ways to empower girls to continue their education in Africa while remaining determined to pursue her original career goal. She thought about it for two years, often telling others in hopes of “giving away” the idea to someone else who would make it happen.
“This idea would not go away,” she said. “It was so imprinted in my mind.”
In her entrepreneurship class, the idea came flooding back. She mentioned it to her professor, Romuald Afatchao, who is from Togo and planned to travel there for spring break. Afatchao invited her to join him so she could see the community firsthand. McGriff rescheduled her job interview to take that trip. By the time she returned, a shift had begun to take place.
“Two weeks before graduation they offered me the job,” McGriff said. “I was surprised, because I wasn’t excited about it. And that was my cue that it wasn’t the right place for me.”
In SHE’s first year, 65 girls received school uniforms and tuition. But McGriff’s team soon realized the girls would quickly outgrow their uniforms. And that’s how an adjustable uniform, called “the uniform that grows,” was created.
SHE has experienced steady growth since its start, but this year has been transformative. In July, CNN published a story about SHE. Around the same time, SHE released a video showcasing its adjustable school uniform that has generated more than 27 million views on Instagram. Within a two-week period, SHE raised roughly $65,000. at funding boost enabled SHE to add another 500 girls to the fall program this year.
Another measure of success is found within the organization itself. One woman who completed the program was forced to leave home at 14 after her father told her she couldn’t stay if she continued her education. She graduated at the top of her class in math and sciences and is now one of SHE’s program coordinators. Her success illustrates the organization’s original intent to invest in girls’ education and women’s career development.
A friend told Fawziyat Sani about the organization and encouraged her to pursue a job there.
Sani lives in Togo and started working at SHE as a translator in 2018. She is now the lead designer for the uniform and is a member of the leadership team.
“We are all very lucky to find ourselves here,” Sani said from Togo. “We have the opportunity to work in an organization where we are cared for, as a woman. You get things without asking for them. We are in a country where opportunity is limited. No matter how hard you try you don’t have opportunities where people open doors for you.”
McGriff took a leap of faith and changed course to create an organization that empowers girls to pursue their dreams. It’s a decision that showed her it’s never too late to trust her instincts and change her life. And in that way, it’s not that different from the impact a school uniform can make for girls in developing countries dreaming of completing their education.
“You don’t have to follow the life path you’ve been prescribed,” McGriff said. “You can change your path.”
