sub saharan africa
ONG QET INCLUSION
QET Inclusion's mission is to increase the visibility of transgender people in the Ivory Coast. The NGO was created to promote differences and social justice, keep records of cases of gender-based violence due to and/or based on transgender identity, provide health services adapted to identities, and encourage trans activism in francophone Africa.
Youth Empower Foundation
Youth Empower Foundation is a female-led initiative with a diverse membership ranging from fresh college graduates, secondary school girls to primary school students and young women who are out of school. The foundation focuses on gender equality and empowering women and girls by investing in the education sector, strengthens linkages with health and well being of adolescent girls and young women and integrates technological solutions into the global challenges that women and girls face in their day to day lives.
Parlement des Femmes Albinos au Sud-Kivu
Parlement des Femmes Albinos (PAFESKI or Parliament of Albino Women in English) is a Congolese organisation (DRC) created and led by women and girls to promote social justice and gender equality and to fight against injustices against women. PAFESKI, which is part of the CIVICUS movement, brings together girls and women including: albino women living with skin disabilities, women with physical disabilities, and Pygmy and other marginalized women to promote their socio-economic rights long denied by antiquated customs and political leaders.
Mubende Women With Disabilities Association (MUDIWA)
MUDIWA is a group in Uganda led by girls and women with disabilities. The group aims to give girls and women with different disabilities the support to achieve equal rights and opportunities. In Mubende district, girls and women with disabilities are still ignorant about how COVID-19 is spread and the preventive strategies to take at a personal level. MUDIWA aims to provide education on the prevention of COVID-19 through media such as radio talk shows. The group also wants to spread messages to prevent gender-based violence to ensure girls and women with disabilities remain safe and free from violence during the lockdown period.
LADIES' VOICE
Ladies' Voice is a Togolese NGO created to build an egalitarian society in which all individuals are equal before the law, and where every person enjoys sexual and reproductive health rights and access to quality health services. Ladies Voice's mission is to contribute to the development of young women in Togo through the creation of a tolerant society in which fundamental rights are respected especially considering the hostile socio-legal context. The mission is also to bring together marginalized women in an environment which is safe for them.
Friends of the Marginalized
Friends of the Marginalized in Uganda was founded by a group of activists with the aim of advocating for and supporting the rights of marginalised transgender persons and young women in Uganda. It serves as an organised, collective voice of this group of marginalized people, determined to fight for their socio-economic and political rights as equal citizens of Uganda. Transgender people are particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. They may be living with compromised immune systems, such as transwomen sex workers living with HIV/AIDS, or homeless and less able to protect themselves through social distancing and safe hygiene practices. Friends of the Marginalized will support the transgender community and protect them from infection by addressing their basic and hygiene needs, supporting relocation for those who have been evicted and delivering antiretrovirals for those living with HIV/AIDS.
Synergie Trans* Bénin
SYNERGIE TRANS* Benin's mission is to contribute to the visibility and development of transgender people in Benin and in the sub-region so that they can be considered in development policies and to advocate for the end of violence based on gender identity. The arrival of Covid-19 in Benin, followed by restrictions on movement and curfews, have worsened the situation of transgender people. The organization aims to provide safe housing and food for their community, as well as medical assistance and psychological support for transgender youth.
Awer Women Empowerment
Awer Women Empowerment in Kenya was founded by two ex-conflict concubines who had been kidnapped and trafficked to neighboring Somalia as sex slaves and forced labour for the Al-shabaab terror group. In this region of Kenya, girls are kidnapped from their communities, raped and taken as slaves. When they return, often bearing their rapists’ children, they are shunned and rejected by their community and their own relatives. Due to COVID-19, Awer Women Empowerment has been unable to provide the usual support systems for these girls, and they are experiencing increased mental health issues and stress. The organisation aims to purchase remote working technology to enable their team to support girls and provide access to mental health information and counseling to reduce the risk of depression, self-harm, suicide and gender-based violence.
União de jovens solidários para desenvolvimento feminino de Caue
União de jovens solidários para desenvolvimento feminino de Caue in São Tomé e Príncipe is made up of young voluntary people with the objective of the empowerment and supporting weak women through raising awareness about sexual and reproductive health and the importance of supporting young single mothers. They also developed actions related to the protection of the environment in their district.
Action Femme Et Eco-Justice (AFECOJU)
AFECOJU is a feminist organization self-managed by young feminists in the Democratic Republic of Congo that defends the human and environmental rights of girls, young women and trans* people. They aim to strengthen their organizational and individual capacities to adapt their activities to the pandemic with a feminist approach. Thus, AFECOJU aims to address misinformation about Covid-19 through awareness campaigns on television and radio, and campaigns so that essential workers have adequate protective equipment to perform their work.
Action pour la Lutte Contre l'Injustice Sociale (ALCIS)
ALCIS is a community-based organisation that fights against human rights violations and gender inequalities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since its inception, ALCIS has articulated a democratic and progressive movement that brings together young LGBTI and sex workers to provide support and information to fight discrimination, exclusion and violence that this community faces. The organisation works tirelessly to end the criminalisation and penalty of homosexuality and to promote solidarity.
Afroactivists
Afroactivists is a new organization formed by girls and young women living in rural communities in Malawi. The organisation aims to provide opportunities for development, education, health, safety and a platform for fighting against gender-based violence, prioritising justice and working towards the SDG goals to ensure a better environment for girls. The pandemic has had a significant impact on girls and young women. Internet access is limited and expensive, meaning that online classes are not possible. There has been an increase in sexual violence and rape with over 25 survivors in the community in need of assistance, and an increase in teenage pregnancy. Additionally, health services and resources are limited due to the closure of community health halls. Afroactivists aims to set up a temporary community health centre that will provide PPE and sanitary products to community members, as well as appoint private community counsellors to assist girls who have experienced domestic violence. Funding will also be distributed to teachers and teaching assistants who do not have adequate PPE.
AID4Girls (Advocacy and Integrated Development for Girls)
AID4Girls provides access to accurate, reliable and youth friendly SRHR information and services to girls, women, young people especially LGBTQI people and community LGBTQI people in northern Ghana under extreme secrecy due to the laws that criminalize, discriminate and stigmatize against this group of young people in the country. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, reproductive health services have been been completely shut down for the LGBTQI community. Accessing these services from both public and private facilities not only results in victimization, stigmatization and discrimination, but LGBTQI people are often refused services and placing the at an extremely high risk of complications of their Reproductive Health ; recently one colleague was lynched whilst trying to collect her ARVs from a government hospital. AID4Girls works to provide essential, life-saving and rights-fulfilling SRHR services to the LGBTQI community including food, temporary shelter, home based care and the provision of ARVs at a safe house.
Arquivo de Identidade Angolano
Arquivo de Identidade Angolano is a group of LBTIQ + feminist women, created in 2017, to celebrate multiple Angolan identities. Its mission is to promote and defend the rights of LBTIQ+ women and create content on gender and sexuality in the Angolan and African context. Objectives: Empower young LBTIQ+ women in social, political, cultural, and economic leadership through conversations, training, and courses; Offer safe reception space for LGBTIQ + communities; Sensitize Angolan society about gender and sexuality in their agendas and areas of activity (education, health, social media).
FEMISS - Feminist Initiative South Sudan
FEMISS is a feminist and sex worker-led organisation in South Sudan, working to advocate for the rights of sex workers and the end of violence against sex workers. They also provide legal support and education, and work in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights. FEMISS has trained sex workers as peer leaders and paralegals, as well as engaged in dialogues with the police and other uniformed persons to end violence against sex workers.
Girl's Voice Initiatives
Girl's Voice Initiatives aims to support girls through offering access to quality education, information on girls’ rights, life skills, psycho-social support and economic empowerment in Bukombe, Tanzania. The group is made up of ten girl entrepreneurs who want to address the challenges facing girls in their community. Their programmes are based in education, health and WASH sectors for development. Group members have been unable to progress their businesses due to the restrictions implemented in response to Covid-19 in Tanzania. Girl’s Voice Initiative aims to resume their business activities, in order to be able to continue to support girls who come from poor families and provide them with access to education, health care, sanitation and leadership development skills. The group also hopes to hold sessions focussing on life skills, leadership and management, using technology for development/innovations and capacity building.
Girls Arise Foundation
Girls Arise is an adolescent girls’ group that aims to advance the rights of adolescent girls in Balaka, Malawi. The group works to strengthen adolescent girls’ agency, voices and participation in the areas of SRHR and strengthen girls’ education. They hope that this will allow adolescent girls to claim control over their bodies, as well as develop gender equitable social norms, attitudes, and behavioural change at community and individual levels to prevent violence against girls in communities around Balaka Township and beyond.
Golden Hearts Development Trust
Golden Hearts Development Trust is based in Zimbabwe, and works to enable young teen mothers to engage in projects that generate income so they are able to return to school. The group also makes reusable sanitary wear and has a number of horticultural projects. In the current climate, Golden Hearts Development Trust is unable to travel to where their projects take place, and marketing their work and generating income has been a challenge. The group aims to raise funds to travel to their plot of land where they hope to plant crops and obtain irrigation pipes to protect their crops from drought. They also hope to engage as many teen mothers as possible, as well as open a website to sell their produce online.
Hawa Feminist Coalition
Hawa Feminist Coalition was founded by young feminists in 2018 with the aim of promoting the safety, equality, justice, rights and dignity of young women and girls in Somalia where women bear an unequal brunt of hardships exacerbated by poverty, conflict, religious and cultural limitations which promote strict male authority. Pre-existing toxic social norms and gender inequalities, economic and social stress caused by the pandemic, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures, have led to an exponential increase of gender-based violence in Somalia.
.jpg)
Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA)
IWOGRA is a registered non-governmental, non-profit women and girls’ rights organisation that works towards the promotion and protection of human rights, equity and social justice in Nigeria. The organisation was born in 2019 with the aim of protecting and promoting women and girls’ rights through advocacy, reporting, strategic litigation, capacity building, education and research.
Edu Arise
Edu Arise is a welfare organization that supports learners with disabilities with free tutoring classes. Their vision is to ensure that their learners get the best form of education by including qualified counsellors and career guidance for their learners. They believe in the power of mentorship and how it helps shape girls and help them attain their full potential. Edu Arise’s mission is to provide students with quality and safe education during the COVID-19 pandemic, through continuing to offer a venue for teaching, enlisting tutors with training in assistive technology, covering transportation costs and studying materials that cater for the need of each their students, and providing assistance to students who are homeless.
ENVOL-Association Action Santé Trans
ENVOL-Association Action Santé Trans is a Beninese feminist association. ENVOL's mission is to accompany, help and support women and trans people to contribute to their well-being. ENVOL works to end gender-based violence in order to promote empowerment in the community. The group fights against STIs and HIV/AIDS by promoting behaviour change among couples to reduce the HIV prevalence rate in the community.
Girls' Forum Uganda
Girls’ Forum Uganda enables economically vulnerable youths to equitably access educational and skills training to generate income to cater for their own health and development needs in Uganda. As a result of the Covid-19 lockdown and a reduction in public transport, GFU’s service delivery has been affected. The needs of the youth during the pandemic have not been prioritised and young people are experiencing socio-economic challenges, and a lack of access to basic needs such as healthcare, food and education. Many healthcare centres have been forced to close, and the youth-friendly centres that have remained open are not easily accessible to people living in rural areas. GFU is working to support adolescent girls, youth, women and disabled people to get access to healthcare, particularly ART for HIV+ people. They also aim to provide food and educational materials.
Indigenous Girls Rise
Indigenous Girls Rise was created by young adolescent girls to promote girls' education and contribute to end early and forced marriages within communities in Cameroon. The group also raises awareness about the dangers of early and forced marriages and the importance of sending the girl child to school. They have organised training sessions to promotes girls’ leadership by providing a platform that allows girls to speak confidently in public and in their communities. Indigenous Girls Rise have trained around 40 pairs of educators to go door to door in their community to raise awareness about the right of the child and gender-based violence.
KURIA GIRLCHILD EMPOWERMENT GROUP
Kuria Girlchild Empowerment is a support group for transgender young people, SGBV survivors, young people with disabilities, and girls heading homes in Kenya. The original objective of the group was to develop self-mitigation of negative social stigmas and traumas experienced by the aforementioned groups. The age of group members meant many of them were unable to obtain national identity cards, and they therefore decided to work with like-minded organizations to contribute their voices, and work to develop sustainable ways of survival. Due to the Coronavirus, Kuria Girlchild Empowerment has lost essential financial support, and members have been exposed to sexual abuse and extreme stigma. They are also facing a lack of access to medical treatment, basic necessities, PPE and psychosocial support. The group aims to provide PPE, mobile phones, food, legal and medical assistance and access to essential psychosocial services in a safe environment to community members.
Réseau des jeunes pour la promotion de l'abandon des MGF et Des Mariages D'Enfants
Réseau des Jeunes pour la Promotion de l’Abandon des MGF/E et des Mariages d'Enfants fights to eradicate gender-based violence (GBV), particularly female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and child marriages in Senegal. It is made up of 30 youth movements and associations with 30,000 members working to promote Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents and Youth (SRHAY).
VFN Heroes Club
VFN Heroes Club in Nigeria is a safe space for school girls to meet fortnightly and discuss gender-based violence issues that affect their lives and their futures. The group particularly focuses on the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Osun State, where one third of girls are mutilated before the age of 15. VFN Heroes Club operates in 38 schools in Osun State and has 2832 members aged 10-19. These girls are now equipped with the information sufficient to take a stand against FGM and also enlighten their families on its harmful effects.
Mifali
Mifali is a Cameroonian platform managed by adolescent girls and boys, which focuses on the injustices faced by girls in particular. On this platform girls come together to discuss issues they face and bring out solutions to these problems, with the aim of empowering adolescents with education, understanding, and skills to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as obtain access to services and career opportunities for their personal and leadership development. The movement also works to facilitate the active participation and inclusion of their voices in critical decision-making spaces. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, group members have been unable to meet and engage in community outreach. Meetings take place online, which is challenging due to a lack of access to the internet and mobile phones. Mifali is working to ensure that group members have access to the internet and communication devices, so that they can continue to engage and remain active in advocacy and movement activities.
ActivateHer
ActivateHer is a sports development initiative based in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town, South Africa. ActivateHer leverages sports as a catalyst to empower girls and young women, identifying the power of sport and play to further physical and mental development. Together, through sports and educational support, ActivateHer provides girls with tools to empower themselves and their communities, preparing them for economic independence and social resilience in life.
FORUM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH WITH DISABILITIES
Our organisation was established in 2009 in order create space among youth with disabilities, most especially girls with disability, because they are the most vulnerable people in our country as well as in our community.
Matumaini Group
Matumaini Group is made up of 25 young transgender women. The group came together to enable a section of the community who are trans and bisexual to fight for their denied rights, partake in income generating activities, reduce stigma and make their voices heard. Matumaini Group runs income-generating activities with an environmental focus. The group has four million tree seedlings at its central nursery and will sell these in order to get income. It also runs a successful paper bag manufacturing scheme in response to the abolishment of the use of plastic bags which are hazardous to the environment. The group trains young women and girls with computer skills and to date has trained over 2,500 girls, most of whom have gone on to be self-employed themselves using these skills.
Regional Deaf Women Initiatives Network
Founded in 2003 by three Deaf women, Regional Deaf Women Initiatives Network (RDWIN) is a community-based Deaf Women’s Organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya. Deaf women and girls are marginalised and have limited access to information due to their disability and semi literacy. RDWIN has been at the forefront in advocating for the rights of Deaf women and girls since its inception. The group does this through sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS education, economic empowerment, prevention of domestic violence and by removing communication barriers. Currently, its focus is on Deaf adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health rights and mitigating the effect of covind-19 using sign language.
Human Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Malawi
Human Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities in Malawi trains women and girls with disabilities to know their rights, and to claim and exercise them. The group has four pillars: economic empowerment; literacy education; sexual and reproductive health and rights; and economic empowerment. As part of a village banking structure, groups of women and girls with disabilities train in small business management skills and receive raised funds to support businesses that are subsequently established. As a result they are able to move away from street begging and are economically empowered.
Support Organization of Parents with Disabilities
Support Organization of Parents with Disabilities (SOPADI) in Uganda is a local community organisation set up in January 2020 by a team of young mothers with disabilities to fight for the rights of other parents with disabilities. The group provides training in parenting skills, counselling, wellbeing and education of children. In response to the global pandemic, the group is implementing a six month project to provide relief assistance in the form of food and medication to mothers with disabilities in Jinja District who have been greatly affected by the virus.
Girls Front Ughelli Delta State Nigeria
Girls Front Ughelli Delta State Nigeria is a group made up of girls aged 13-19. The group advances the gender equality movement in its community and improves the lives of adolescent girls in marginalised communities through mentorship on reproductive health, menstrual hygiene, and access to education. Girls Front aims to prevent child marriage and early pregnancies, as well as ending violence against women and girls. The group is using the funds received to help girls and their families to recover from the effects of Covid-19.
Motivated girls
Motivated girls is a Rwandan multitalented group of University graduates girls with various disabilities founded in January 2020 with overall commitment to contribute to disabled young girls leadership through mentorship, emotional support, role modelling and technical support for in and out of school disabled young girls’enrolment, performance and graduation to a higher level of education. We use mentorship and art as advocacy tools for young girls and women with disability’s rights to voice out gender based violence, stigma, discrimination and any kind of mistreatment done to girls and women with disabilities while enhancing young girls self confidence.
_.jpg)
Adolescents Initiative for Reform (AIR)
The Adolescents Initiative for Reform (AIR) is an adolescent-led group founded from a HERVoice Fund sponsored project with Leap Girl Africa. This group aims to improve girls’ access to information about their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), train and strengthen their capacity to influence SRHR and HIV/AIDs biases and discriminatory laws or policy that exclude them in the implementation process. The lack of access to basic hygiene products and information on SRHR infringes on adolescent girls’ fundamental human rights and AIR strives for better SRHR outcomes and to decrease the chances of girls being involved in survival sex and other harmful practices that will negatively affect their education, development and wellbeing.
Cultiv8 Africa
The Teen Cultivators are part of a youth led organisation (registered Trust) in Zimbabwe called Cultiv8 Africa which equips young people with skills and knowledge that make them changemakers. The focus of the organisation is on Young Women Leadership, Personal Development and Youth Access.
Care for the Young (CY)
Care for the Young (CY), is a feminist group established in 2017 by young girls in Akamkpa Local Government Area in Cross River State of Nigeria. CY aims to address the recurring problems of gender-based violence, poor sexual and reproductive health and rights, lack of access to education and lack of economic empowerment. The group provides support to young girls who have no technical or vocational development skills and prevent them engaging in early marriage.
Alliance Féminine Bagwabza
Our organisation is based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, lead by girls to promote women and girls rights by educating the women and girls how they may manage to fight against social injustice and promoting legal equality within the community. We strongly condemn and fight against gender based violence, promote sexual rights,health education and abortion for the girls and youn women in the community.
Focus International
Focus International is a young women's organisation and a feminist popular education movement that defends the fundamental values of secularism, diversity and equality. Its objectives are the promotion of female leadership and raising the potential of the young Chadian woman. Through training the group strengthens the capacity of women in leadership, and teaches advocacy techniques and public speaking. Focus International promotes strategic resource commitments for women's rights and works for gender equality through strategic communications, campaigns and other advocacy activities.
Success Capital Organisation
Success Capital is a proudly African and unapologetically LGBTIQ+ Youth led, managed and serving organization that links grassroots experiences with global and regional mechanisms. Success Capital’s work is centered on moving LGBTIQ+ youth from a state of survival to one of success. This is achieved through strengthening and safeguarding agency in the form of voice and visibility within human rights, sustainable development and the systemic frameworks that impede LGBTIQ+ Youth from thriving in socio-economically complex environments
Matimba
Matimba (meaning strength and power in Xitsonga) was founded in 2019 by a collective of young trans individuals and parents of trans kids in South Africa. Matimba’s aim is to support trans and gender-expansive children, teenagers, and their families to cultivate a healthy, caring, and safe environment for these children and teenagers to grow up in. The group works with families, schools, and all other avenues that may impact the lives of transgender and gender-expansive individuals and their development. Matimba advocates for these individuals to access adequate and competent services in order for them to have childhoods that all children deserve. Matimba envisions a world that allows and empowers transgender and gender-expansive youth to express themselves in all spaces that they occupy. A world that is conducive for trans and gender-expansive youth to be themselves with the support of their family and allies.