Boxgirls Leadership Education The girl’s afterschool leadership education programme works in primary schools in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, to ensure girls are empowered and able to create a safer environment for themselves and their families. Boxgirls Leadership Education believes that if girls have the skills and the support to develop their sense of self, they will take steps to protect themselves and work for a safer community. The programme
works through girls to influence their peer groups and broader communities, believing that the girls will act as multipliers against gender-based violence. The programme is run by female peer-facilitators, who mentor groups of 30 Grade 5 girls twice a week at their schools.
skills and good learning habits over half of the school year. The facilitators are chosen from the community and trained through the programme.
They teach the girls deescalation strategies, personal safety, understanding of their rights, communication skills, life
Contact: Web: boxgirls.org.za Email: info@boxgirls.org
The programme also includes homework support and exam preparation.
Brave Rock Girls This organisation was founded in 2011 by a group of girls looking to make their suburb of Manenberg, Cape Town, notorious for gang violence, safer. It has since grown into a multi-faceted project that encourages girls to stay in school and become economically independent healthy women, living risk-free lives. The organisation offers various initiatives, including adventures
and networking. It takes girls between the ages of 14-18 on trips to meet their sisters across the continent, training them as youth reporters and photographers to advocate for solutions to challenges faced by adolescent girls. The unconventional approach looks to train girls from urban and rural areas to become advocates for themselves, then teaching them to advocate for others.
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Through BRAVE Rock Girl’s initiatives, girls gain the selfconfidence and skills needed to become agents of social change. The group also engages boys and men in their programming to create a safer South Africa as safety is everyone’s responsibility. n Contact: Tel: (+27) 082 734 4569 Web: info@bravesa.org.za
