The Global Give Back Circle was piloted in Kenya in 2006 as a solution to help 10 at-risk adolescent girls stay in secondary school by matching them to a dedicated mentor, providing them access to critical life skills through weekend workshops, increasing their frame-of-reference about what ‘is’ possible for women to achieve when they have no limits, and showing them the ‘how’ of giving back to their communities through a structured Give Back Commitment model.

As the girls began graduating high school, the ‘Circle’ expanded its mission to transitioning girls into the workforce through tertiary education and/or entrepreneurship. Our strategy was, and still is, to partner with grassroots partners in country.

Today, Global Give Back Circle – Kenya is the largest gender-based mentoring, tertiary education and workforce-readiness program for at-risk girls in Kenya with over 1,000 beneficiaries and over 800 mentors in the program. Our consortium in Kenya has raised over ten million dollars in programming and scholarship funding to date from USAID, MasterCard Foundation, Microsoft, Citi, Ford Foundation, the Wilson Center, Standard Chartered Bank, KPMG, Equity Bank, KPMG, Deloitte, Monsanto, ZEPRE, PwC, Old Mutual, MRM, Safaricom, and GM.

As the Circle expands into new countries, Global Give Back Circle – Kenya is uniquely positioned to lead the innovation that is needed for social intervention and to drive impact. It is the hot-house for innovative approaches through process design, content, programming, strategy, and implementation methodology, and its learnings have evolved, and will continue to evolve, into solutions for the holistic transformation of at-risk girls from a circle of poverty to economic freedom.

China was a natural extension of the ‘Circle’ because of the way the ‘Circle’ is designed to empower girls, economically, and socially.

In 2009, the ‘Circle’ launched the program with the first 20 girls at a high school located in a rural Province of China. Each girl received a mentor, life skills training in financial literacy and leadership, and coaching on the implementation of a Give Back Commitment that could be executed at school and/or in each girl’s community.

The following year, 19 girls graduated from high school and 18 were admitted into college. 20 more girls were welcomed into the ‘Circle’ in 2015.

Today, the program continues to provide financial assistance as needed and helps the girls to communicate with their mentors. All of the girls are currently pursuing university courses, while others have already joined youth volunteer programs to give back to their communities.

Seven years of programming evolution and improvement provided a toolkit for contextualization for other countries and cultures. After launches in China in 2013 and South Africa in 2014, India was next when Global Give Back Circle – India launched a pilot with a cohort of 20 girls in Delhi in 2015. A partnership between Magic Bus India and Global Give Back Circle leveraged the core competencies of both organizations.

Girls who grew up through the Magic Bus India program were selected as program participants because of the way they stepped-up to leadership positions over the years. These girls had a desire to complete their education, and become role models in their communities.

After a successful pilot program, Global Give Back Circle – India officially launched at the Residence of the U.S Ambassador to India, in February 2016. Two months later, 80 more girls, from high school across the urban slums of Delhi and Mumbai where enrolled in the program. In April 2017, World Vision India launched the program with 80 at-risk girls in communities where World Vision India operates.

In Dec 2017, FORD Foundation, Girl Rising, Magic Bus India Foundation and Global Give Back Circle collaborated to pilot a 2-year transformative program with objective of expanding economic opportunities for young women from low-income communities by addressing the barriers to their participation and inclusion in blue-collar occupations. The program will empower adolescent girls through education attainment, workforce readiness and skills training, mentorship, and giving back in their community. Sensitizing employers, parents and the community will create an enabling environment for the girls and reduce systemic constraints to entry in such occupations. 1,000 girls have been recruited in this project in North and East Delhi.

Today, through a partnership with Magic Bus India and World Vision India, the girls are matched with a mentor, and empowered to complete high school and paint a vision for a future in the new economy, taking their place as educators, social workers, medical practitioners, fashion designers, engineers and business women. Currently, a number of girls in the program are pursuing university programs in India, while others are completing high school. Their mentors come from India and the U.S.

Successful mentor chapters have been established in India at PwC, General Motors, Deloitte, Microsoft, DELL and the American Embassy in India.

Based on the success of Global Give Back Circle – Kenya, and with a goal to drive change by providing support to the most extremely marginalized girls in South Africa, the Global Give Back Circle and Khulisa formed a partnership in 2014.

In October 2014, Global Give Back Circle – South Africa officially launched in Newcastle and transitioned 40 extremely marginalized girls through the program.

Soon after, 120 more girls from Newcastle and the Midlands were enrolled into the program through a 1-year 21st-century skills course in partnership with Monsanto. Over a 12-month curriculum period, the girls participated in a Mentorship Program, a Give Back Commitment Program and received a progressive series of workshops focused on the development and acquisition of critical life skills, including: reproductive health, financial literacy, nutrition, agri-business, storytelling, leadership and more. Girls also received employment‐readiness skills and 21st-century skills all designed to help them make the transition from high school graduation to employment.

Today, these 120 girls have graduated from their 1-year bridging course. Several have been awarded scholarships to continue onto college while others are pursuing entrepreneurship opportunities.

In 2016, the Global Give Back Circle – Girls Guiding Government Program launched in Rwanda and Kenya. Through a partnership with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project (WPSP), 50 girls at Gashora Girls Academy in Rwanda, and 50 girls at Starehe Girls’ Centre in Kenya, where on-boarded with a goal to empower at-risk adolescent girls to play a role in political, social and economic development, and to step up as leaders and advocates in public service.

WPSP is a program of the Global Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Wilson Center whose mission is to empower the next generation of women around the world and to mobilize women to support issues of critical importance in public service.

The Global Give Back Circle has learned that advocating for the inclusion of more women in governance and creating a favourable political environment in which they can thrive as young leaders are critical for boosting women’s political, economic and social contribution. Marginalized girls often feel that they cannot effect change, but they can.

In April 2017, the Global Give Back Circle – Girls Guiding Government Progam countered this thinking and hosted its first conference in Kenya. The four-day conference was designed to increase the participation of young African women in advocacy and public service through the convening of 100 beneficiaries and 200 girls from various secondary schools throughout Kenya. The conference, which brought together girls, youth advocates, and government officials, was a huge success. It provided a platform for youth advocacy and empowered adolescent girls across Kenya and Rwanda to have a voice in their government and in the formation of policies that make a difference in their countries.

Today, these 100 girls and 100 mentors are part of a team that is actively engaged in the co-creation of a ‘package’ of workshops and implementation methodologies that can be leveraged to engage girls throughout Kenya and Rwanda, with a goal to expand the reach to girls throughout Africa.