REAL PEOPLE: Meet three GIRL UP Teen Advisors!
GLITTER had the opportunity to sit down with three of the Girl Up Teen Advisors: Sarah Gale, Munira Khalif, and Archana Somasegar, to talk about how Girl Up started, what the organization is all about, how it’s helped them, and their definition of a girl who rocks. They believe a girl who rocks is not only passionate, motivated, but also wants to help others around them. We couldn’t agree more! Read on for their amazing stories!
GLITTER: This one is for all three of you: Tell us more about Girl Up and what the organization is all about. How did it begin?
SARAH GALE: Girl Up is an innovative campaign by the United Nations Foundation that helps give girls an opportunity the channel their energy and compassion into raising awareness and funds to help the hardest-to-reach adolescent girls in today’s world by ensuring that they are safe, healthy, educated, counted, and positioned to be the next generation of leaders.
MUNIRA KHALIF: Girl Up is a United Nation Foundation Campaign that mobilizes American girls to empower the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls in developing countries to be healthy, educated, safe, counted, and positioned to be leaders in their own communities. One of Girl Up’s mottos is “You see a girl. We see the future.” Girl Up comprehends that by empowering one girl you are impacting her community, her country, and soon our world.
ARCHANA SOMASEGAR: The Girl Up Campaign is all about harnessing the power of young girls in a country as strong and independent as ours. The freedoms and rights that we have been blessed with have allowed girls to reach their full potential and become the leaders the world needs. This campaign has recognized that girls create a strong and irreplaceable part of our population—a group that must be supported, loved, and given the opportunity for success, thus striving to harness the potential of American girls to bring the global society closer to a future of justice, equality, and opportunity for all its inhabitants. Through its teen advisors, extensive club network, and youth champions, this campaign has implemented and executed multiple projects in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Guatemala to give girls the hope and the opportunity to live the life they want to live.
GLITTER: This one is for all three of you: How did the Girl Up campaign start?
SARAH GALE: The Girl Up Campaign was launched in 2010 by the United Nations Foundation to connect adolescent girls to girls in developing countries, inform them on the issues and devastating reality, and motivate them to help.
MUNIRA KHALIF: The Girl Up was campaign founded by United Nation Foundation to shed a light on the 600 million adolescent girls living in developing countries who are denied the basic necessities of life. The campaign aspires to help these girls transcend the adversities they endure including, child marriage, early childbirth, and lack of education and basic healthcare.
ARCHANA SOMASEGAR: Girl Up started in September 2010 as a way for teen girls here in the U.S. to get involved with global issues and help support United Nations programs that serve adolescent girls in developing countries. Before Girl Up began, the UN had identified a need for programs that help make sure girls ages 10-19 are in school, healthy, safe and leaders in their communities. Since then, Girl Up has gone global with over 300,000 supporters and more than 300 clubs in 25 different countries around the world to help support this work.
GLITTER: This one is for all three of you: Can you tell us about some of the things you’ve done with Girl Up and why you signed on as a Girl Up Teen advisor?
SARAH GALE: When I first got involved with Girl Up, I was thirteen and would do things like lemonade stands and presentations. Then, the Girl Up Club program was initiated and I couldn’t have been more excited! I got all of my friends involved and I have been running the club ever since. We used Girl Up’s resources, watched videos, brainstormed, and fundraised and have been growing and expanding ever since. One of my favorite fundraisers I’ve ever done was a Girl Up mother-daughter Zumba class fundraiser! It was incredible because everyone had a fun time dancing and exercising, while raising money for Girl Up, and learning more about the cause when I gave a presentation! When I attended the Girl Up Leadership Summit, several of the Teen Advisors at the time reiterated that I should apply for the Teen Advisor position. So, my school principal nominated me, I filled out the application, and was honored to be selected with sixteen other exceptional girls to serve for the 2012-2013 term! I was determined to get as involved as possible so I could be an advocate for this cause that I was so connected to, and I will always continue to support girls around the world.
MUNIRA KHALIF: I was originally drawn to becoming a Teen Advisor for the Girl Up campaign because of its innovative approach of connecting American girls to their counterparts in developing countries. The campaign truly is a by girls for girls campaign, allowing adolescents to help foster their own generation. In addition, I wanted the opportunity to stand as a voice for the millions of young girls who have been left and to aid them in pursuing their dreams like so many of us have the chance to.
As a Girl Up teen advisor, I have had the opportunity of hosting screenings of the riveting documentary Half The Sky, speaking at numerous schools/events across the state of Minnesota, raising awareness and funds, implementing new Girl Up clubs, and rallying the youth to stand up for girls across the globe. In addition, I have the honor of attending the Too Young to Wed exhibit alongside prestigious guests including, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moo and South African social rights activist Desmond Tutu.
ARCHANA SOMASEGAR: Locally, through my Girl Up club network, I have collected hundreds of signatures for the Petition to End Child Marriage, presented for large corporations such as Microsoft, written blogs about issues girls face, planned screenings of Half the Sky and Girl Rising, organized large-scale fundraisers and most importantly worked to integrate the youth of my community through our clubs program, to join together and discover that their voice and their efforts can do amazing things. As a group, we have created awareness locally on our campus, but also throughout the Pacific Northwest Area, with the distribution of personalized Girl Up merchandise, and awareness events throughout the Pacific Northwest area.
The reason I chose to become a Teen Advisor is embodied in an experience I had this past summer. I visited the Rhema Garden orphanage and spent a week really interacting and getting to know some of these girls. One day, as we were picking up the girls from school, I sat down next to a girl I had only spoken to a few times. As I sat down, she began to rummage through her bag, for what seemed to be like a very long time. Finally, she found what she had been looking for and she looked extremely thrilled, so naturally I was curious as to what it could be. She carefully took it, and there it was carefully wrapped; a piece of old candy that I have no idea how long she had been saving it for. Without even a second of hesitation, she handed it over to me saying, “This is for you,” with a huge smile on her face. I was shocked. For some of these girls, getting three meals a day wasn’t guaranteed let alone getting candy. That was a rarity in itself, and here she was willing to share it with me; her most prized possession. This really touched me, and made me reevaluate the ideals that I have. With all that I have, I am so reluctant to part with any of it, but this girl was willing to share with me everything she had. It was this that really made me feel that it was my duty, my responsibility to give something back to her—everything that I could offer her, just for that one piece of candy. It was this desire to do my part in helping her that strove me to become a national teen advocate for Girl Up.
GLITTER: Sarah, does being trilingual help you get more people involved in Girl Up? I think communication in any circumstance is key so I’m sure it helps, but I’m curious, can you get people to open up more that way?
SARAH GALE: Being trilingual definitely helps me with Girl Up; I speak English, Spanish, and French. It’s so captivating how girls around the United States are so connected and share this commonality of the desire to help girls just like them, but in developing countries. So, when I talk to my large family of cousins and other family members in Colombia, I try and get them involved as well! I know that Girl Up is beginning to spread to girls outside of the United States, and to have a bond with, not only girls in the United States, but in Colombia and other countries would be so incredibly special.
GLITTER: Archana, in addition to being a teen advisor for Girl Up, you’re also an officer of the Bellevue Youth Court, can you tell us about that more?
ARCHANA SOMASEGAR: The Bellevue Youth Court is a branch of the King County juvenile court system, which handles misdemeanors committed in the local Bellevue area. Members of the court are trained as attorneys, jurors, and judges, and are given the responsibility and duty of representing a fellow juvenile in a true hearing that will decide their future, and their punishment for the crime committed. This experience has truly been an eye-opening experience for me because it has allowed me to truly understand the definition of justice in the modern world—no longer is it associated with strict, disciplined punishment, but is rather defined as the ability to inspire change, and bring about opportunities to help someone realize their potential. The main mission of this court is to provide a decision that will allow the respondent to not only fully make atonements for their wrongdoing, but to find a manner in which they can rectify their wrongs and reintegrate themselves into the community in a wholesome and healthy fashion. This focus on healing rather than castigation is what initially drew me to participate in the program, and has continued to redefine the true meaning of justice and hope for our society.
GLITTER: Munira, you’re originally from Somalia, did moving from a country laden with civil war to the US, make you want to help others even more? What do you do as a teen advisor?
MUNIRA KHALIF: Both my parents fled the Somali Civil War in hopes of providing their own children the ability to prosper and flourish in a country where there is security and blossoming opportunities. Nonetheless, I recognize that millions of Somali children have not been blessed with the same fate. Acknowledging that my brothers and sisters back home have been denied the chance to dream and prosper drives my desire to reach out and help. This is because there is nothing that is different between them and I except the place in which we are being raised. As a teen advisor for Girl Up, I have the opening to not only help Somali girls in Ethiopian refugee camps, but also others who suffer the same fate.
GLITTER: This one is for all three of you: What do you think makes a Girl that Rocks?
SARAH GALE: With whatever she loves to do, a Girl that Rocks will be motivated, driven, and put one hundred percent into it!
MUNIRA KHALIF: What makes a Girl that Rocks is her ability to not only endeavor to better herself but the community and the world around her.
ARCHANA SOMASEGAR: Passion—Passion is what makes a girl truly step out of her comfort zone, and take a stand for what she believes in. Passion is what allows us to find happiness in what we do, and gives purpose to tasks we undertake every day. When working towards a cause that means something to us girls, we join together, raise our voices, and take action to achieve fantastic things that alter the world in amazing ways. Passion is what exposes our potential for success to the world and drives us girls to be the best we can be. Regardless of what that passion is, the flame and the desire to fulfill your dreams, and the tenacity to go out and get what you want, makes a girl rock not only in the eyes of those around her, but around the world as well.
