EMPOWERINGGIRLSOUR GOAL
This initiative focuses on the empowerment of girls
through club and district events and service activities,
as well as through RI-sponsored events such as the RotaryInternational Convention, Rotary Day at the United
Nations, presidential conferences, andRotary Days of Service. Our purpose is to:• Prioritize girls in one or more areas of focus toimprove their well-being and allow them to makegreater contributions to their communities• Raise awareness of the need to empower girls andwork to close the youth gender gap across Rotaryactivities• Inspire clubs and districts to carry out service projects
that aim to empower girls

WHAT WE IN ROTARY CAN DO
Clubs and districts can emphasize the empowermentof girls in events such as Rotary Days of Service, Rotary
institutes, community-based projects, district events
such as photo or essay awards, other service activities,
and through communications such as social media andmessages from Rotary leaders. Use the service activities
and resources in this brochure to help you prioritize theempowerment of girls.

Post your service activities, projects, and programs
that empower girls to the Rotary Showcase
Empowering Girls campaign using the tags
EmpoweringGirls2021 or EG2021.
View all of the initiatives at my.rotary.org/en/
news-media/office-president/presidential-initiatives.

SUGGESTIONS
AND ACTIVITIESIDEAS YOU CAN START WITH
• Consider planning events and activities
related to 11 October, the International
Day of the Girl Child.
• Plan Rotary Days of Service activities thathighlight or focus on the empowermentof girls.
• Think about how you can apply theprinciples of diversity, equity, andinclusion in projects and programs
that emphasize gender equity andempower girls.
• Contact Rotary Action Groups to findresources, guidance, and project ideas for
empowering girls in each of their areasof expertise.

• Advise clubs to use the tags
EmpoweringGirls2021 or EG2021
on their project posts to the Rotary
Showcase Empowering Girls campaign.
• Work with Rotary partners such as
ShelterBox, Habitat for Humanity
International, or Mediators Beyond
Borders International on projects toempower girls in ways related to theirexpertise, such as disaster response,
affordable and safe housing, orpeacebuilding and mediation.

PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG LEADERS IDEAS• Encourage Interact clubs to take part inthe Interact Awards and submit videos,
photos, and essays that are aboutempowering girls.
• Support the creation of new Interact
clubs, either at traditional or all-girl
schools, to help empower girls throughleadership development and communityservice.
• Consider events and activities related
to Global Youth Service Day, which is
29 April to 1 May 2022, to emphasize
how youth service can empower girls.
• Use your Rotary Youth LeadershipAwards (and virtual RYLA events) toempower girls through leadershipdevelopment activities.
• Encourage members to submit session
ideas for the Youth Exchange Officers
Preconvention that are about supportingand empowering girls.
• Start using the service-learning materials
for adult advisers and youth participantsin the Learning Center to plan projects
that empower girls through service
and address the needs of girls in eachcommunity.

• Highlight in club and district
communications the benefits for girls ofparticipating in Rotary Youth Exchange.
• Feature stories about girls who foundleadership opportunities throughInteract.

ROTARACT IDEAS• Develop projects that focus onempowering girls and submit them tothe Rotaract Outstanding Project Awards,
which showcase innovative, sustainable
service activities aligned with our areasof focus.

• Encourage members to submit session
ideas for the Rotaract Preconvention
that are about supporting andempowering girls.
• Establish near-peer mentor relationships
between Rotaract and Interact memberswith a focus on mentoring girls.

SUGGESTEDACTIVITIES FOR EACH
AREA OF FOCUS• Consider projects that include an investment in
training female teachers.
• Work to create or improve the teaching of science,technology, engineering, arts, and math for girls
as part of a school curriculum or in an after-school
program.
• Set up after-school mentoring and tutoring
programs for girls.
• Include adult literacy programs for mothers in youreducation projects.
• Facilitate professional development opportunities
for teachers on gender-sensitive topics.
• Find ways to increase the conversation opportunities
for boys about cultural and societal practices that
affect girls.
• Contact government leaders to advocate thatthey invest in girls’ educational opportunities andestablish stricter laws against child labor, female
genital mutilation, and early marriage.
• Provide menstrual hygiene education to boys andgirls in the community.

• Support programs that provide sexual andadolescent health care, including reproductive careservices.
• Facilitate education about preventing and treating
sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV and HPV.
• Promote vaccinations that prevent the transmissionof HPV and hepatitis B and C.
• Contact Rotary Action Groups that support theseareas of focus, such as the Rotary Action Group for
Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health, which has
an interest in adolescent health, gender equality,and the empowerment of girls.
• Advocate for mental health services specific toyoung girls and teens, such as those that focus on
preventing suicide and dealing with substanceabuse and addiction.
• Support early prevention and treatment services
focused on teen pregnancies and fetal alcoholsyndrome.
• Consider projects that work to prevent and treat
adolescent-onset diabetes.

• Support projects that educate people about how toprotect young women from being trafficked.
• Facilitate the education and engagement of young
women in peacebuilding processes.
• Promote rehabilitative services programs for victimsof domestic violence.
• Advocate for refugee programs aimed at younggirls.
• Work to promote health education throughout agirl’s school years.
• Contact peace fellows who work with femaleled organizations that are making positive socialchange.
• Focus stories from your club or district on how
COVID-19 has affected women and girls.

• Develop projects to support families’ livelihoods
and protect them from external economic shocks,
because when families are desperate, children —especially girls — are often the first to suffer.
• Facilitate projects that provide skills and experienceto girls so they can improve their future access to jobs.
• Support projects to ensure that girls have access to areliable food supply and high-quality nutrition.
• Promote projects that empower women, which
create more role models and mentors for girls
and set precedents for girls having learning
opportunities.

• Develop projects that improve water, sanitation, andhygiene services at schools so that girls can safely
manage their menstrual hygiene without sacrificing
their education. This would include, among otherthings, gender-specific toilets, access to sanitarynapkins, and convenient and environmentally safe
waste disposal.
• Support initiatives that provide women with theskills and experience to be become entrepreneurs
and start businesses or cooperatives that make andsell sanitation and menstrual hygiene products,
such as menstrual hygiene kits, reusable pads, andundergarments.
• Work with groups that ensure that sanitation
initiatives in schools include gender-specific toilet
facilities.
• Participate in projects to develop menstrual hygiene
management plans and resources, including safely
managed water and sanitary systems, sanitarynapkins, and programs to address cultural taboos.
• Promote projects that encourage girls to assume
leadership positions in hygiene promotion
programs, such as the creation and implementationof school health clubs.

• Promote the use of traditional and Indigenous
knowledge to empower girls in natural resource
management practices and understand how it
affects their lives.
• Educate girls about the importance of sustainableagricultural methods to improve food security,
reduce food waste, and increase access to fresh,
healthy food.
• Support activities that educate and empower girls
to influence family decisions about food security,family nutrition, and health.
• Develop environmental projects that haveeconomic, educational, and health benefits for girls.
• Educate girls about the disproportionate impact ofclimate change on them and their futures.
• Improve access to education for girls so they canmake informed choices later about issues that
can have an environmental impact, from familyplanning to sanitation to food security.

ROTARYRESOURCESROTARY PEACE FELLOWSHIP ALUMNI
Write to alumni@rotary.org about working
with these and other alumni on initiatives toempower women and girls.
Victoria Anderson is the director ofphilanthropy and enterprise at Anglicare WA
in Perth, Australia, and is on the board ofdirectors of the group 100 Women. Anderson
previously founded Children United, anonprofit that works with grassroots
organizations to fight the sexual exploitationof children.
Hilary Jo Caldis is the founder and CEOof The Female Voice, an online resource
and community space designed for womenaround the world to express themselves freelyand authentically.
ElsaMarie D’Silva is CEO and founder ofthe Red Dot Foundation, a platform thatcrowdsources personal experiences of sexual
violence and abuse in public spaces.
Sarah Oxford is a lecturer at Victoria
University in Melbourne, Australia, who iscompleting her PhD there, focusing on how
sports programs aimed at girls in developing
countries can alter gender relations in thecommunity.

Ana Cutter Patel is a Rotary Representative
to UN Women, a member of the board
at the group Girl Be Heard, and a former
executive director of the Outward Bound
Center for Peacebuilding. She’s workingwith RI Director Peter Kyle and NewGen
Peacebuilders Executive Director Patricia
Shafer on implementing the project Youth &Peace in Action: Engaging Young Community
Peacebuilders.
Rosa Singer is the senior director for
strategic partnerships and alliances for CARE,
managing the organization’s partnerships
with Fortune 100 corporations and focusing
on projects that empower girls.
Noelle Volin is an attorney and consultant
for Do Justice Consulting, working toincrease awareness about sex trafficking
and other forms of sexual exploitation.
Volin helps build the capacity of advocatesand service providers, criminal justice systemprofessionals, churches, and communities toserve victims and end sexual exploitation.

THE CADRE OF TECHNICAL ADVISERS
The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers is made up of members
who use their professional skills and technical expertise to advise Rotarymembers. Scan the QR code to find an adviser who can help with initiatives
to empower women and girls.

EN—(721)