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Advocate: Sejal Hathi, founder, CEO and executive director of Girls Helping Girls (and a high school student!)
Website: Empower A Girl
About: Sejal is a 16-year-old student at Notre Dame High School in San Jose, Calif. In her spare time, she loves writing, dancing, reading, playing with her dog Coco and spending time with family. She is currently preparing for a trip to Kolkata, India, where her organization will build a library for the daughters of commercial sex-trade workers.
Her mission: "We work to empower girls to create social change and build a movement of change makers."

Respect Rx: What inspired you to get into girl advocacy?
Sejal: I’ve always been really passionate about social change initiatives, but the one organization that really was the catalyst for my involvement with girl-related issues was Girls For A Change. When I joined Girls For A Change at the start of high school, I was really passionate and driven, but I still did not have that much direction. GFC revealed to me that any girl, however disadvantaged, can leverage her power to make a difference. The more social change projects I performed, the more I realized that the most fundamental problems affecting youth are not poverty or environmental degradation or political corruption. Rather, it was ignorance and the lack of a cosmopolitan cultivation amongst all youth that taught them that they do have a voice—they can be leaders for change. I desired to really work with the population that I thought was most vulnerable, most marginalized, most in need of love and empowerment: girls.

One project in particular that I performed with GFC was to empower the women and children victims of the Darfur genocide. I was able to befriend some of the girls there. After meeting with them, I was shown again the gap and the vast chasm that exists between girls like me who have the resources and support network to create change and those girls who don’t. Millions of girls in developing countries do not have those resources, do not have that hope, support or knowledge. That’s why I decided to muster my resources to create an organization that empowers girls.

What strikes you as the most pressing issue girls face today?
A lack of awareness—not only about global issues, but also about their own individual power and their own worth to humankind. I think a lack of awareness is the root of many problems.

How does your organization combat that problem?
We work to empower girls to create social change and build a movement of change makers by mobilizing girls through two primary initiatives. The first one is the Empower a Girl program. It’s a grassroots sister team program that partners girls in the United States with those in developing countries to achieve four global goals: eradicating poverty, increasing access to education, improving health and promoting peace.

The girls work together on curriculum and toolkits that we’ve developed to learn more about the issue and how it relates to their local communities, and collaborate to create social change projects that directly address the goal. This program also has a fundraising and philanthropic component in which we raise funds to empower girls overseas to pursue a holistic education, including scholarships, uniforms, school books and lunches.

Our second program is the Sisters 4 Peace Network. It’s a dynamic social change movement that provides one-on-one mentorship, toolkits, guidance and resources to girls around the world who want to launch their own organizations. Sisters 4 Peace is operated by a network of peace ambassadors who are successful girl entrepreneurs from all over the globe who are willing to contribute additional mentorship to the change makers in their regions. In total, so far, we have reached almost 1,000 girls in about 10 different countries through the Sisters 4 Peace Network and the Empower a Girl program, all in about a year.

What advocacy accomplishments are you most proud of?
I’ve done hundreds of speeches for girls, motivating them to believe in themselves, take action and understand they are really a united and unstoppable force. I’m really proud that I’m making a difference in their lives in that way.

What other advocates or organizations do you admire?
I really admire We Are Family Foundation, which was inspired by one of my role models, Mattie Stepanek. He was a child peacemaker who claimed that peace is possible and that we are all a mosaic of gifts that must be nurtured, accepted and cherished. He really advocated that anyone can do anything to make a difference in this world. We Are Family Foundation was born out of Mattie’s vision, as well as his desire to promote reconciliation after September 11. The work they do—promoting education in developing countries, empowering young peacemakers—is truly venerable.

Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?
In five years, I see myself finishing my undergraduate years and still growing the organization. In ten years, I want to go into the field of medicine. I see myself practicing as a doctor but still volunteering heavily. I really want to get involved in Doctors Without Borders and volunteer in clinics overseas—especially in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing parts of the world that do not have access to adequate health care and medical facilities. I want to get involved and see that access be made more equal.

What would you say to a young girl who wants to get involved in girl advocacy but isn’t sure where to start?
I would advise her to join our network and be trained! I would also advise her to look inside herself and discover what her interests are, what her passions are. That’s the first step to realizing how a person can become a change maker—realizing your own assets and how you’d like to contribute to the movement. Understand that you are a change maker at heart. As Dr Seuss said, ‘If someone like you didn’t care a whole awful lot, nothing would change for the better—it would not.”

Sejal’s picks:
We Are Family Foundation
Girls For A Change

—Interview by guest editor Tara Swords

Comments (1) | by Courtney on July 16

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