Those Closest to the Problem are Closest to the Solution

Members of our partner organization in a multi-day workshop to design Girl Awakening.

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.

To move forward means to consult with the richest resource-  our local partner team a Girl’s Arts Collective. Being closest to the problem, they are also closest to the solution. Each member shared their perspective on how to resolve the gender discrimination, violence, and oppression of women and girls in their communities.  Together, we moved through different steps and discussion points to create an overall comprehensive and collective view of the issues and the strategies they would like to engage with to create change.  

Personal stories were also told by members of the team, sharing what has led them to work as advocates for women and girls in their communities and to believe that encouraging the arts and creativity is a way forward for girls’ empowerment.  

“when she decided to be a photographer her mother and father didn’t accept it because she was a girl.”

For example, Pamela Tulizo who is currently working with and for women in documentary photography, recalls that when she decided to be a photographer her mother and father didn’t accept it because she was a girl. From this experience and others she knows the limitations of being a women in society and this has then pushed her to reflect on the experiences of other girls, and all the ways that they are impacted and limited.  Because of her personal experience she is motived to explore the identity of women and girls through her work, to question the place of women in society as it has been defined.  She finds that as she works in photography she comes to know herself better and hopes that through her example she can inspire other women and girls through her work.  

White board brainstorm on the issues girls and women face in Goma. Included are: Lack of education on girls’ and women’s rights, lack of artistic space for young women, unemployment, leading to sex work and child marriage, and lack of education on sexual and reproductive health.

I am grateful to each member of our partner team for their openness and the personal strengths and motivations of each to carry forward the work. While facilitating these workshops we also drew from the experiences of feminist organizations across the world and how they are organizing to create change in their communities. It was helpful to bring in example of the range of issues, challenges and strategies that are being utilized across the world, to enrich and round out our conversations.  It was a reminder that while each community is distinct, there are so many commonalities in the experience of being a women or a girl.  

We encourage you to check one great report, One Brave, Creative, Resilient:  The Global State of Young Feminist Organizing, covering the experiences of 1500 female-focused organizations provided a particularly powerful snap shot of feminist organizing today and how they are working with the current realities to create a world of greater gender equality.  

Excitement is building for the next phases of the Girl Awakening program in 2021, stay tuned.

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