Founding Story by Sejal Hathi
- One of my deepest passions has been my commitment to the organization Girls for a Change, which helps girls like me to identify local challenges and implement creative solutions under women coaches. Three years working with GFC had always inspired me that any girl, however disadvantaged, could leverage power to make change. However, the more I campaigned and led, the more I painfully realized that most of the girls in the world do not even have the global awareness and tools necessary to define their own mission and transmute that passion to action.
- One project in particular that I performed with GFC to support a women’s group in Darfur showed me the vast chasm between girls like me and those in developing countries without the resources or support network I enjoy to become leaders for change. And then I realized: The most pressing issue facing youth today is not drugs or violence, nor poverty nor health disorders, but rather a blighted education: the lack of a diverse and cosmopolitan cultivation that empowers youth to recognize their potential, their unity, and their significance as leaders for change. There is a renowned Chinese proverb that declares, Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. However, there is more to the solution for this problem than simply such passive education: It is indispensable to the progress of humanity to empower youth- especially girls, who are often less advantaged- to not only learn their rights and potential, but to also seek and implement ways that they can change their communities to improve their life. It was through this thought process that I determined to muster my experiences to establish an organization that empowers aspiring girls like those I encountered from Darfur to fulfill their dreams by making a difference.
- All girls can transform their world, if only given the power and opportunity. Without the requisite knowledge and resources, however, their dreams are stifled and they remain stymied in their social state because they do not have the power to make a difference. This organization, Girls Helping Girls, gives girls this power, the knowledge and the resources, to make their vision for the world a reality.
Do you want Sejal to speak at your event, or just have a question for her? Email her at Sejal@empoweragirl.org!
How We Started
The Facts
Girls Helping Girls was founded in early 2007 by then 15-year-old Sejal Hathi from Fremont, California. It was accorded official status as an Ashoka's Youth Venture organization and as a public benefit corporation in August 2007 and is currently awaiting approval as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Girls Helping Girls is now run exclusively by girls, for girls. It has partnered with multiple nonprofit organizations and business corporations to promulgate its message and effectively outreach to girls worldwide. Please see our How You Can Help pages for a list of sponsors and to learn how you may become a supporter of girl empowerment!
Women are 51% of humankind, empowering them will change everything… I can promise you that women working together linked, informed, and educated can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.
