Girl Empowerment

Creating positive change: Rotary District 7600’s Empowering Girls Initiative

Through the Empowering Girls Initiative, Rotary members worldwide can enhance girls’ safety, health, education, and well-being. This initiative is focused on club-level and district-level projects through which members can create positive change in the lives of girls. 

For girls throughout the world, empowerment is the ability to make choices and create positive change in their own lives, as well as in their families and communities. Empowered girls become empowered women. Reaching out to the girls of our world is the heart and purpose of Rotary’s Empowering Girls Initiative. Our stories of supporting girls are interwoven with their stories of empowerment

Elizabeth Usovicz

Chair of Rotary’s Empowering Girls Task Force, Rotary International Director

Our Goal

This initiative focuses on the empowerment of girls through club and district events and service activities, as well as through RI-sponsored events such as the Rotary International Convention, Rotary Day at the United Nations, presidential conferences, and Rotary Days of Service.

Our purpose is to:

  • Prioritize girls in one or more areas of focus to improve their well-being and allow them to make
    greater contributions to their communities
  • Raise awareness of the need to empower girls and work to close the youth gender gap across Rotary
    activities
  • Inspire clubs and the district to carry out service projects that aim to empower girls

Why Empower Girls?

Girls across the world continue to face significant challenges:

  • Traditional cultural expectations
  • Early marriage
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Exploitation and abuse, including human trafficking and gender-based violence
  • Lack of access to menstrual hygiene products
  • Lack of access to education
  • Lack of access to reproductive information and healthcare
  • Malnutrition, obesity and eating disorders
  • Mental health challenges