14 core human rights regularly violated in the girls’ daily lives prompted them to create their own Bill of Rights and two murals

I want to talk to you about our relationship, because my partner is enclosed in a vessel on which my community is sitting, my family, my traditions, my culture, my country, and the whole world is sitting. My partner’s name is My Rights.

This summer I travelled to Freetown, Sierra Leone joining 1000 + other feminist activists for the 10th Annual African Conference on Sexual Rights and Health.

I am an undergraduate student pursuing a B.A. in psychology at the City College of New York and was a social media intern with Colors of Connection this spring. Colors of Connection is a non-profit organization driven to create change within the lives of individuals through creativity.

Core to changing existing gender discrimination and violence is understanding how it is perpetuated and developing strategies to address it. Unequal access to community resources and exposure to risks and threats plays a big role.

Those Closest to the Problem are Closest to the Solution: Dialogue was the main focus of this first phase of the Girl Awakening Program in Goma, DR Congo, reflecting our commitment to social justice and to shift the resources and decision-making into the hands of local communities where we work.

Last week we engaged in collaborative program design with our local partner, a girls’ arts collective here in Goma DRC in preparation for our Girl Awakening program for girls.

Social Justice and Anti-Racism Organizational Strategies 2021-2025: This summer our talented board and staff developed a five year strategic plan for the organization with new programming and approaches. 

The Adolescent Girl and Creativity Network (AGCN) launched a Creative Assets and Program Content Guide commissioned by the Population Council. This guide includes thirteen creative assets and fifty activities – program content – to build social and emotional learning, mitigate and manage trauma, and promote healing for adolescent girls.

Colors of Connection is founded on the principles of social justice and equality. As a US-based organization, we feel it is important to acknowledge the deep pain and fear that we are experiencing in this country right now following the recent death of Mr. George Floyd as a result of systemic racism.

A local group of young women and girls, M’shujarts, has been raising awareness about COVID-19 and supporting eachother. M’shujarts is about 20 in number, all who participated in CC programs in the past and have since formed their own girls art collective that promotes gender equality through public art in Goma, DRC.

Population Council Adolescent Girls Community of Practice Training in New York: Last week as Program Director and Co-Founder i met with other like-minded organizations at the Population Council in NYC for a two-day training on girl-centered program design.

InSEA World Congress July 2019, Vancouver BC: In line with the theme of the conference, “Making,” and the sub-theme, “indigenization of art education”, the purpose of the presentation was to consider the indigenization of art education in the context of Colors of Connection, which we describe as a kind of socially engaged art that is transpedegogical in nature