Change for girls
By joining our regular-giving program, Change for Girls, you’re supporting girls and their families around the world to thrive. When girls are educated and supported, their entire family and community benefits.
Change for Girls supports our work in addressing the immediate needs of girls and their families, and the deep-rooted barriers to gender equality! Your regular donation can mean girls and young women around the world are free from violence and have choices for their futures.
A gift of just $20 every four weeks can create long-term transformation for girls.
Nowhere in the world are girls treated as equals.
You can help change that.
By joining Change for Girls, you’re helping create a world where girls can stay in school, choose if and when to marry, find meaningful work, have a say in their communities and be free from fear and violence.
Together we can create a better now for her, which means a better future for everyone.
Have a question? Jump to our FAQs.
Why Girls?
But when girls are educated and supported,
they can create incredible change.
- 12 years of education for every girl would reduce child marriage worldwide by 64 per cent.
- For every year a girl stays in school, her country’s climate resilience measurably improves.
- 5 to 10% is how much infant mortality rates are reduced for every additional year of school that a girl completes.
Girls have the potential to change the world. Join Change for Girls.
Stories Of Powerful Young Women
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“So far, none of my friends or any other girls my age have been forced to undergo FGM or get married. Because of our work, that practice has been stopped – taking younger girls to be initiated. I have not seen that happen since I have been part of the activist group and it is a great feeling to know that I am helping to make a difference.”
Marie is a 15-year-old from Sierra Leone and the daughter of a former practitioner of female genital mutilation (FGM). Despite her mother’s involvement with the practice, Marie has become an outspoken advocate against FGM and has refused to undergo the procedure.
Marie’s activism has had a profound impact on her mother, who both supported Marie’s refusal to undergo FGM and stopped practicing the procedure on others.
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“I got married when I was 12 years old …The worst thing about being his wife was not being able to speak to people or make my own decisions. He was controlling and wouldn’t listen to me.
“I finally got the strength to leave him when I was around 25 …I told him I wanted a divorce. He said he wouldn’t give me any money to support me and tried to keep one of my children. But I left him anyway, taking the three children with me. We went to live in a little hut in my family’s compound where we still live today. As soon as I left my husband, I set up my own business selling beer with the help of a microfinance loan … I also started studying what I’d missed from school.
“I’ve been living as a single mother for seven years now and life is a lot better.”
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Ksheeraja learned to stand her ground after losing her father when she was just 15.
“When he died everybody around us expected us to ask for money, but we didn’t. Alongside my schooling, I immediately started work, not just to help my mother make ends meet but because I wanted to be independent.”
19-year-old Ksheeraja from India is a member of the Girls Advocacy Alliance (GAA), a youth group run by Plan International. She is part of a growing network of girls who have been trained to improve the position of women through lobbying and activism. The main objectives of the GAA are to reduce child marriages, child trafficking and violence against girls and young women.
“I see a role for myself in changing the perceptions and opinions of parents … All-too-often I’ve seen child marriages decline into domestic violence, and that really saddens me.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Marie is creating long-lasting change in her community
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Ayalnesh has made it her mission to combat child marriage.
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Ksheeraja is a youth advocate with the Girls Advocacy Alliance
Frequently Asked Questions
A gift every four weeks can create long-term transformation for girls. When you join Change for Girls, you’re part of a community of incredible people who are making the world a more equal one; one where girls can stay in school, choose if and when to marry, find meaningful work, have a say in their communities and be free from fear and violence.
When girls are educated and supported – their entire family and community benefits, including boys and men. Because gender inequality affects absolutely everyone. By standing with girls and supporting them to speak up, know their rights and lead, we’re working towards a better, more equal world for all.
Not only do our programs work with boys and girls, providing access to services that support them through emergencies, conflicts, poverty, violence, abuse, or exploitation – our programs also challenge gender norms and stereotypes so that everyone is able to pursue their dreams and reach their full potential, regardless of their gender.
We are so grateful for the generosity of our supporters who help create change for girls, and are always excited to share stories of the incredible and powerful girls that we’re supporting.
Your gift could fund our programs that support girls to access education and critical health services. It can provide families living in poverty with everything they need to keep their families healthy and safe, it can provide safe spaces where girls can learn about their rights, gain life skills, and get the support they need to overcome the barriers holding them back.
You can view the latest version of our Annual Report to see snapshots of our global work, examples of how we’re working towards our goals and commitments, and details about our finances for the last financial year.