The Ripple Effect

“I really hope you can get more books for our community. So many girls are interested in getting this training. Because of the lockdown, they cannot study, they cannot go anywhere. They don’t have any jobs or anything to do. If more girls can get this training, that would be really helpful.”

I spent an hour on the phone with one of the teachers I hired to implement our Girls’ Book training in Kutupalong, Bangladesh. Over the past several weeks, we have conducted over 50 hours of training with a group of 16 Rohingya adolescent girls. 

After months of designing the program, I was finally ready to test out the book and see if it resonates at all with the Rohingya community.

The training includes:

• Giving each girl a copy of our Girls’ Book.

• Going through 3 activities & a list of discussion questions for each page according to the Teacher Guide.

• Giving the girls extra time to spend time together and build community, providing drinks / snacks for them and facilitating icebreaker group activities.

“It takes about 1 hour to get through just 1 page in the Girls’ Book,” my teacher explains to me.

“Wow! I assumed it would take between 20 – 30 minutes…why so long?”

“The girls have so many questions and stories they like to share with the group. Every page gives them new ideas to discuss. And they have loved the drawing activities so much.”

This was my goal for the project. I wanted to create a tool that brought people together and encouraged conversation. A tool that provides basic health education for girls. A tool that encourages diversity, inclusion, and creativity.

We continued to talk about the overall thoughts of the training and the impact it has on the girls. My teacher mentioned that the parents and siblings of the students have also started to join in on the training because they are so interested in the book.

We discussed future plans. My teacher has already picked out 2 girls in the group who have promising leadership skills and would like to teach the next group of girls. 

And so the ripple effect begins.

It hasn’t been ideal to try and manage my first girls’ program thousands of miles away, but I realize that this is probably how it should be.

I shouldn’t be the one to implement this program. It should stay at the grassroots level, where community development takes place at its purest form.

This is the perfect setup — a small group of adolescent girls along with their teacher discussing relevant topics that influence their day-to-day decisions. 

This book and training would look completely different in another community.

That’s what makes it so unique.

Even though this book was designed to reach girls around the world under a set of common topics, the implementation in the communities make it so different. Every culture has its own unique set of characteristics, traditions, and values. This is reflected in the types of questions they ask and discussions that are sparked. 

That’s why we love contextualized materials. Relatable content fosters greater engagement.

So what’s next?

Our plan is to get that ripple effect going. More books, more teacher guides, more sessions arranged in the Rohingya community. After a few more sessions to test our content, we’ll be ready to hop continents and bring this project to more communities around the world.

If you’d like to join us on this journey, support our project here:

Help us sponsor 20 new students to go through our curriculum!

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