our core pillars
We believe that investing in girls and young women, particularly from rural and disadvantaged communities, yields multiple benefits for families, communities, and countries. We believe that this approach has a transformative ability to reform societies which in turn allows girls and young women to thrive.
Raising A Feminist Generation
Raising the next generation of African feminists is at the core of our advocacy. We aim to equip adolescent girls and young women with the information and skills on advocacy and movement building to dismantle the systemic challenges affecting girls in their communities through activism. Our aim is that girls lead the transformation in their communities, guided by feminist politics and values, not only in theory but also in practice. We boast of informal, friendly, zero tolerance abuse that has our network of feminist allies and activists enjoying the movement building work that we do both online and offline.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
LGLI SRHR advocacy is grounded in the fact that all children, adolescents and young people have the right to make their own free and informed choices and to have control over their sexual and reproductive health and lives, free from coercion, violence, discrimination and abuse. We also recognize that adolescent girls and young women, in particular, are denied the ability to exercise these rights. Consequently, LGLI aims to expand access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in and out of school, empower adolescents and young women, in all their diversity to make autonomous choices about their bodies, sexuality and reproduction and to strengthen adolescent girls and young women’s and feminist organizations and networks to promote and protect bodily autonomy and SRHR.
Economic Justice
LGLI is committed to changing the discriminatory social norms and economic structures, laws, policies, and practices that marginalize young women and girls. We recognize that the challenges we are experiences globally are a direct result of an unequal social contract in which these global and local hierarchies shape our social and economic relations. We stive to embrace a decolonial perspective that seeks to create linkages with between climate change, racialized and gendered labor exploitation, trade rules and economic structures that reproduce inequalities both within and among nations.
Climate Justice
LGLI recognizes the negative impact of climate change on the lives of Adolescent girls and young women in Kenya whose lived realities are more often not recognized. We strive to ensure the representation, inclusion, and protection of the rights of those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. These include the increasing inequalities and marginalization occasioned by climate change has heightened marginalization and vulnerability of adolescent girls and young women.
Ending All forms of Violence and Discrimination
Violence perpetrated against rural women and girls reinforces gender inequalities by perpetuating traditional gender roles and their subordinate status, and by compromising young women and girls’ capacity to be productive in their communities. Rural young women and girls particularly face heightened risks of gender-based violence compounded by harmful gender norms, unavailability of referral services and the limited reach of social protection mechanisms.
Let Girls Learn has provided legal support to rural women at the height of the COVID 19 outbreak in through its association of Feminist Lawyers. LGLI also ensures that social protection mechanisms are strengthened to provide support to survivors of gender-based violence.
Girl-led feminist activism: In recognition that feminism’s survival in Africa is greatly dependent on amplifying the perspectives of girls and women in rural areas who are the majority, the spirit of our feminist approach centers the voices, needs and experiences of girls and women in rural areas. As rural young women and girls, we convene spaces to contribute to LGLI’s program direction and approaches, we connect diverse rural grassroots movements, as a way to build their solidarity and establish grassroots feminist clubs both in schools and communities to have more girls in rural areas lead feminist activism.
Advocacy: Building on the available feminist research, evidence and statistics from indigenous, local communities and movements, we challenge cultural norms that perpetuate inequality, and misogyny and contribute to the embedding of patriarchal conditions in rural communities. Our community activism is premised on African and indigenous experiences of feminist practice that rural communities are not homogenous and that intersecting inequalities affect their meaningful existence. Our advocacy interventions are alive to these intersecting realities and are designed to respond to the different intersecting needs of the diverse communities we work with.
Movement building: LGLI believes in the power of collective activism in creating meaningful changes at systemic levels. We build pathways for accessing cross-movement solidarity by connecting different rural girls’ , young women, LGBTQI+ movements and organizations first, with each other and second, with grassroots labour movements that fight for farmers’ rights, land rights and climate justice. Our movement building work is guided by the feminist principles of solidarity, justice and accountability. LGLI also makes use of digital platforms as tools for mobilization, collective action and an alternative to visibilizing the often invisibilised work happening in rural Kenya. These connections create solid platforms for collective strengthening and amplification of rural organizing work in Kenya and beyond
Access to Education
We believe that all girls have an inalienable right to access education. LGLI works to ensure all girls access quality education. We aim to provide safe access to schools for girls and address the unique contextual challenges that affect their access to education such as menstrual hygiene and management, sexual and reproductive health, cultural beliefs.
Educated girls are the foundation of communities and are able to make better choices for themselves, build stronger economies and communities. Education is one of the most critical areas of empowerment for girls and young women. When girls are educated, they lead to healthier and more productive lives. They gain the skills, knowledge, and self-confidence to
escape the cycle of poverty.
