Giving With Hamaila: GirlForward

Girl Forward is one of the coolest nonprofits I have heard of yet. They pair up refugee girls of high school age with older mentors to help them navigate their new community and life. In addition to their mentorship program, they also host Camp GirlForward - a 6 week program that focuses on literacy-, provide tutoring and create safe spaces for their girls. 

They started off as a small group of girls in Chicago and now, seven years later, they have offices in Chicago and Austin and have helped over 300 girls blossom and find their footing during a difficult time. They do field trips, talk about self esteem, explore identities, provide resources - I think the most important thing they are doing is building community and connection and giving these young women space to be themselves and grow.  

I can't understate how much their work resonates with me. Seeing young girls thrive makes my world go round.  And anyone who knows anything about me knows how much refugee and displaced people work means to me. I've been wanting to mentor with GirlForward since I found out about them (their website is saved in my bookmark bar for over a year)- but with a job, school, and starting a business - it wouldn't be able to fully commit and that's not fair to whoever I might mentor. 

So, in the meantime I'm donating a little bit of money. It really isn't much, but if you donate too - it'll add up and make a difference :) Think about it if you think their work is beneficial to our society.  

You can find out more and donate here.