“KPMG was first introduced to the Global Give Back Circle in 2009 when I met two young ‘butterflies’. I was so impressed with their individual poise, and such a polished and professional presentation, that I decided the rm must become involved. Today, over a hundred people at KPMG in Kenya, the USA, Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, are involved in mentoring and providing friendship and Support. Over the years, KPMG in Kenya always has a number of young women from this program as interns and I can personally tell you that they are all exceptionally professional and high performing. Today, we feel fortunate to have four of those outstanding young women working in full-time positions at KPMG. KPMG is proud to be associated with the Global Give Back Circle and the fantastic impact it has on all involved”.

— David Leahy
Partner at KPMG East Africa

“Deloitte invests in the Global Give Back Circle by sponsoring, mentoring and providing these girls internships. By doing this Deloitte contributes to the development of the kind of benevolent human capital needed for growth in Kenya.”

— Bernadette Wahogo-Irungu
Deloitte East Africa

Empathy is a skill that is fundamental to innovators because of the way it allows us to see things from another person’s perspective and broaden our frame of reference for decision-making. Enlightened decision-making leads to innovative solutions. Creating a culture of empathy drives innovation and new thought. Volunteering is a great way to flex our innovation muscles. Today, 250+ Microsoft employees are flexing their innovation muscles as they mentor girls in the Global Give Back Circle. Global Give Back Circle is an empowerment and workforce-readiness program for at-risk adolescent girls in Kenya, Rwanda, and India. It leverages a tech-driven mentoring model designed to empower girls to lean in and access education and employment opportunities while also becoming role models for what benevolent leadership looks like as they learn how to give back to their communities in ways that ensure all rise as they rise.

In the past ten years, Microsoft Mentors have changed the lives of hundreds of girls in the program. Their collective impact is most profoundly visible in the remote rural area of West Pokot, Kenya, where harmful cultural practices like female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced early marriage keep girls in the margins. 512 girls from West Pokot have experienced ‘HER Lab’, a six-month economic empowerment incubator where they are trained in digital skills, coding, entrepreneurship, agribusiness, life skills, and reproductive health. At ‘Her Lab’, a solar-powered Tech Hub is equipped with fifty workstations where mentors communicate with the girls while also exposing them to the power of the internet. Following ‘HER Lab’, 333 girls have continued on to college, of which 151 have graduated and are entering the workforce. Others are operating enterprises with the skills they now possess. This is unprecedented in West Pokot, and it was made possible through Microsoft’s strong give culture—employees volunteering as mentors have mobilized $900,000 through the company’s ‘My Giving Portal’ to drive sustainable transformation. Not only has their volunteerism impacted the lives of the girls in the program, but it has also helped reverse the harmful cultural practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced early marriage in West Pokot. As these once-marginalized girls return to their communities as economically empowered leaders and role models, they are a formidable force for ‘No FGM’! Most recent data shows that 92% of families in West Pokot now believe that FGM should end. The movement is having an impact!

As a tribute to the commitment of Microsoft Mentors to the economic empowerment of women and girls in West Pokot, this year’s calendar is a ‘West Pokot Story’.

The Global Give Back Circle (GGBC) helps at-risk girls dream big and rise as empowered leaders to mentor the next generation of young women in their communities. Through life-skills workshops, tertiary education scholarships, strong community support, and an innovative mentoring model which underwrites sustainability through support from Kenyan and American private and public sector mentors. After years of implementation, innovation, and learning in Kenya, the GGBC model has expanded to Rwanda, South Africa, China, and India.

The Global Give Back Circle (GGBC) matches talented, but economically disadvantaged secondary school girls with both Kenyan and international mentors who maintain an open channel of communication. Mentors support mentee’s transition from secondary school to university, community college or vocational school, and into the workplace. Mentors provide timely advice and facilitate thoughtful decision-making about the personal, social, academic, and professional choices facing their mentees. GGBC also provides weekend workshops on life skills, workforce-readiness skills, and leadership skills in topics such as reproductive health, digital literacy, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship. Ultimately, GGBC beneficiaries deliver on personal commitments to give back to their communities, fulfilling the circle of service, mentorship, empowerment, and change.

The 2017 Global Give Back Circle – Future Political Leaders Conference was held in Nairobi Kenya, from 27th April to 30th April 2017. Participants included 48 girls from Starehe Girls’ Centre (SGC) in Kenya, 49 girls from Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST) in Rwanda, 4 girls from St. Elizabeth’s Girls Secondary School in West Pokot, Kenya, and 175 girls from various secondary schools across Kenya. The conference was designed to educate and empower adolescent girls to step-up to roles in advocacy, to drive policy change, and to break through the glass ceilings of political leadership.

The conference integrated interactive sessions, tours and field trips, panels and speakers, all focused on methods of policy change, advocacy, and the role young women can play in public service. It also gave beneficiaries the opportunity to meet their sisters for the first time and to exchange ideas across borders. Participants successfully learnt how they can create impact through policy change and advocacy, how to develop and write a policy, and how to present it. They were given a chance to advocate for policy change to actual policy makers, reminding them that their voices matter, and they can make a difference in their countries and across Africa.