Name: Irshad Age: 24 Hometown: Gonda, India (lives next to to one of Asia’s largest dump yard, Govandi) Occupation: Carpenter in Mumbai How did Hero Academy impact you? Irshad’s team of workers used to stare through windows at work of women in their homes and say hurtful comments about them or just lust after them. […]
India has the largest number of child brides in the world. Although child marriage has been illegal in the country for decades, the tradition runs rampant. UNICEF defines child marriage as marriage before the age of 18 and “a fundamental violation of human rights.” According to the 2016 UNICEF report, over 3 million girls in India […]
For decades, the state of Haryana was infamous for high reports of honor killings, rape, domestic violence, dowry deaths, and sex-selective abortions. The result was the lowest female: male sex ratio in all of India; about 880 females to every 1,000 males. Women and girls did not have the same value as men and boys. […]
The Hero Academy is a nine-week course for young men that uses a film-based curriculum to cultivate empathy and respect for women and girls. One of the Hero Academy’s key activities is community mapping. Inspired by a community mapping exercise in a film called Revolutionary Optimists, the activity challenges participants to interview women and girls […]
The Hero Project uses films such as Boxing Girls of Kabul to mobilize men and boys to become active agents of change and challenge social norms and address gender-based violence. this has inspired a village of men and boys of Wagazwadi that consulted with village girls and launched a petition with the village council to release funds for construction and maintenance of a gym where girls can train exclusively.
Gender-based violence is endemic to structures of inequality; masculinity is the vehicle through which inequalities are enforced often through violence. This year, Women and Girls Lead Global – India will be starting The Hero Academy – an interactive 9-week multimedia program to sensitize adolescent boys about actions they can take every day to prevent GBV in their families, communities, and schools.
Documentary filmmakers, Bollywood celebrities, strategists, funders, broadcasters and thought leaders from around the world gathered in Mumbai from February 16 – 19 to celebrate the power of stories and storytelling.
A village in Gujarat, India has banned girls below the age of 18 from using mobile phones. According to the village head, mobile phones are a “nuisance to society” that distract girls from their studies and other chores. Women and Girls Lead Global wants to change that.
With the new year upon us, Women and Girls Lead Global is excited to continue our work around the world and inspire social change through the art of storytelling. See what we’ve been up to in 2015 and where we are headed in 2016.
On September 9th, Women and Girls Lead Global and our partners ITVS, Ford Foundation, USAID and CARE hosted a Global Gender Gap Challenge at the gorgeous GitHub headquarters. The goal of the event was to create new design and ideas that will transform the lives of women and girls.