Expanding the Global Give Back Circle

Photo Credit: Global Give Back Circle

Commitment to Action

Expanding the Global Give Back Circle

Commitment by

Global Give Back Circle

In 2009, the Global Give Back Circle (GGBC) committed to helping 100 at-risk girls from Kenya, transition from poverty to prosperity and into employment by providing them with 1) access to a College Education, 2) Mentors, 3) IT Skills &Life Skills, and, 4) Workforce Readiness Training. In return, the girls implement 'Give Back Commitments' in their community, agree to mentor the next generation of girls, and commit to give back once they realize financial independence. This 2009 Commitment is an expansion of a 2008 Commitment that set out to help 35 at-risk girls.

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Overview

Summary

Commitment

Expanding the Global Give Back Circle

Launched

2009

Est. Duration

9 years

Estimated Total Value

$12,000,000

Region

Asia, Africa

Countries

CHINA, INDIA, KENYA, SOUTH AFRICA

Commitment by

Global Give Back Circle

Partner(s) of the Commitment Maker(s)

Equity Bank Limited, Starehe Girl's Centre, ACWICT, Ecolab, Inc., Microsoft, United States Agency for International Development, Citi Foundation, Woman of WECA, Blessed Generation, ZEPRE, Five Spokes Partnership, National Council of La Raza, Friends of GGBC, World Vision, 100 Mentors, The Mastercard Foundation, Nestlé, KPMG International, Amiran Kenya, St. Martin's Girls School

Details

The Global Give Back Circle is a process designed to change the given realities of disadvantaged adolescent girls by empowering and enabling them to achieve career goals while transitioning from today's beneficiaries to tomorrow's benefactors. The work plan integrates activities among 100 girls, 100 mentors, the local community and financial partners to ensure the circle perpetuates from one generation to the next, as girls are guided on how to Give Back time, talent and eventually treasure.
The girls are attending High School at Kenyan institutions dedicated to disadvantaged girls. They graduate in November 2009, 2010 and 2011. In addition to mentoring the girls on how to be successful academically, mentors also mentor the girls on how to be selfless Global Citizens, by helping them develop Give Back Commitments and coaching them to participate in Give Back Activities. Embedding a Give Back Value System is the key to achieving scale and sustainability.
This commitment connects the time and talent of mentors to the treasure provided by financial partners; treasure that enables these girls to cover the financial requirements (basic survival and educational) needed to complete tertiary education.
The work plan follows the GGBC Five-Phase Transitioning Process:
I: High School
II: Gap Period
III: Tertiary Education
IV: Societal Launching
V: Giving Back
The mentoring component begins while the girls are in high school, and continues throughout their life. The financial component begins after high school graduation and continues throughout tertiary education and societal launching. As a result, this commitment is as much about ensuring ROI on the world's investment to educate these girls from grade school to high school, as it is about ensuring their successful transition from the circle of poverty is realized through the acquisition of skills needed to claim financial and societal independence.

Background

Regardless of how empowered a girl becomes, if she is impoverished, she is unable to attain the tertiary education needed to gain meaningful employment. Upon high school graduation, without further intervention, she hands in her black shoes and uniform, returns to the circle of poverty from which she came, and forfeits her dreams and goals to become a beast of burden for the rest of her life. Therefore, all of the hard work and charitable resources that enabled her to graduate high school become marginal investments unless she is able to complete a process that gives her a chance to claim financial and societal independence.
This commitment can be realized because a 2008 CGI Commitment to transition 'The First Class' of GGBC Graduates established an infrastructure that can be leveraged to transition graduating classes that follow, such as:
?- The implementation of Microsoft's Learning Lab in Nairobi allows the girls to obtain Microsoft Office Certification and run a profit-based business during an unavoidable and lengthy Gap Period that exists in the Kenyan Higher Education System.
?- The standardization of the Applied Learning Mentoring Model makes it easy to onboard new mentors while keeping existing mentors engaged and motivated
?- The initiation of a Kenyan Mentoring Team and a local Mentoring Process ensures community alignment and ongoing ownership of the process
- The institutionalization of a structured Give Back Commitment Process ensures commitments are organized, monitored and measured to provide proof of Societal and Commercial ROI.
?- The designing and formatting of the Empowerment Workshop Series allows for successful facilitation by local mentors and the older girls.
The GGBC's five-phase mentoring process that leverages local infrastructures to transition at risk adolescent girls from poverty to financial and societal independence specifically addresses:
?- A means of providing Trade for Aid whereby girls who receive aid to embed employable skills, learn how to implement Give Back Actions which translate to commercially-valued trade.
?- A methodology to embed selfless leadership by helping the girls help each other, whereby they are empowered and enabled to successfully brake out of the circle of poverty, through a life-long commitment to Giving Back.
- A way to cross-pollinate wisdom through a mentoring model that allows women from all parts of the world to Give Back time and talent.
?- A solution for long-term sustainability by applying commercially-based models and structures to the implementation of a societal transformation process
- A format for transparency, measurement, and success evaluation through clear terms of engagement, Rights, Responsibilities and Rules, and an annual accreditation and participation renewal process.

Partnership Opportunities

The Global Give Back Circle is seeking individuals and organizations, who wish to invest in girls, including, but not limited to: tertiary scholarships for at-risk girls in Kenya, China, South Africa and/or India, IT and 21st century skills training, financial literacy, reproductive health, entrepreneurship and other life-skills training. Additionally, the organization is seeking media/PR support.

The Global Give Back Circle is always happy to share best practice information with any CGI partners, who are involved in commitments that involve: mentoring, tertiary education for girls, IT skills-building, life-skills workshops (reproductive health & financial literacy etc.) and the embedding of a 'give back' ethos.

Progress Reports

May 2016

The initial goal was to support 100 girls and instead there are now 800 girls in the program in Kenya, all of them with mentors and sponsorships to college.

GGBC expanded to China is 2013 (50 girls), and in 2015 it expanded to India (200 girls) and South Africa (200 girls).

Over twenty private sector organizations support GGBC by providing scholarships, mentors, internships and jobs. Microsoft, KPMG, Citi, GM, Deloitte, Monsanto, PwC, Standard Chartered, Nestle, Boeing, IBM, E&Y, MasterCard Foundation are some of the organizations who partner with the program.

189 girls have graduated college and have transitioned into jobs.

The Alumni Circle has been implemented in Kenya and as these Alumni embrace the role of benefactor, the Circle watches in awe as they begin to step up to co-create their movement in Kenya, and now China, South Africa and India.

The beneficiaries have implemented mentor programs at primary and secondary schools throughout Kenya.

Five beneficiaries from the First Class are registering GGBC as a local foundation in Kenya.

The Circle has expanded its reach to support the most marginalized girls in Kenya; those subjected to FGM and forced early marriage. There are now 242 rescued girls in the program and they come from West Pokot, Kenya, an area where FGM is still a common practice.

Two beneficiaries were hired as consultants to work on the design of President Obamas YALI Regional Leadership Center East Africa, mentorship program.

Beneficiaries are participating in South-South Cooperation. One is now in India implementing the program there and another is now in South Africa doing the same.

In 2015, the Alumni Circle stepped up to put on the event of the year, the Educate HER Parade, which brought together 2,000 plus individuals and private sector in Kenya all in support of girls education.