The 8th of March marks International Women’s Day. A global day widely celebrated by all those united in making visible the vital and often overlooked contributions that women have made to society, politics, culture and economics. International Women’s Day has become a worldwide celebration and in recent years, a global mobilisation led by and for women, calling for improvements in their lives and communities. These social demonstrations are attracting more and more attention, and are positively influencing social change across the globe.
Women and girls living and working on the street do not receive the same media attention as other vulnerable groups: in fact, they often do not receive the same attention in the sector as street connected boys. They are often hidden out of sight, harder to access and involve in programmes, and their lives and choices can be controlled by the men and communities around them. A lack of access to safe and secure housing and services adds to a series of obstacles they face in their daily lives, in addition to the inequalities, discrimination and vulnerabilities they already face simply for being women. Of course, the impact of Covid-19 has exacerbated many of these vulnerabilities, and we know that these heightened inequalities can and do drive more girls and women to the streets.
“Girls must know they have the right to shape their lives, and we will journey with them”
- Simphiwe Lindokuhle Mdunge, uMthombo, CSC Network and Working Group Member
Girls and young women on the street are forced to navigate a complex landscape of hostilities and abuses. And whilst they are an increasingly vulnerable group – we know that they are also resilient, dynamic and resourceful. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and as active agents in their own lives, with context-specific solutions to the situations they find themselves in. We also know at CSC that initiatives that aim to meet the needs of street women and girls must include and involve them in decision making and design for better programming.
Working with women and girls on the street
At CSC, we work together with our network members to encourage specialised, long-term attention for women and girls in the streets. In 2014, CSC published ‘‘Nothing about Us Without Us’ a toolkit designed to support organisations that work directly with adolescent street-connected girls. We are an organisation staffed mainly by women, and we realise the inherent value of supporting initiatives led by women for women, and how engaging with these groups and platforming these initiatives will also better our understanding of the quality services and support these women and girls need. Our network members across the world work in many different ways with street girls and women, including the below specialised areas:
- The creation of safe spaces for girls & young women including access/signposting to vital services such as counselling or substance misuse support
- Programmes that focus on the cycle of the street – imprisonment for girls & young women
- Supporting young mothers on the streets
- Providing sexual and reproductive health education
- Supporting girls into education and to find safe and sustainable work, often through vocational training or entrepreneurship programmes
- Challenging the pressure of early or child marriage that girls may escape to the streets to avoid, or find themselves in for safety when on the streets. This can include focusing on sourcing legal identification for girls.
- Working with boys, men and male community members who are pivotal in the lives of these women and girls
What is the CSC ‘women and girls working group’?
Following successful Global Network Forum sessions on the topic in 2018 and 2019, and in light of the pandemic, CSC and network member Amos Trust launched the working group on women and girls at the 2020 Network Forum. The group was set up with the aim to capture and share different methodologies for working with women and girls, and to share expertise to strengthen the way we approach this work within the network. This working group has become a collaborative and open space to share the learnings, challenges and practical issues arising from this often complex and difficult work, and to support practitioners to help focus on the positive outcomes. The network members in the group have extensive experience in providing a range of services, including many of the work areas covered above: They are almost entirely small, grassroots organisations working directly with the community on the ground.
In 2021, the working group was joined by two members of CSC’s Research Expert Forum, Dr Harriot Beazley and David Walker, to focus on helping working group members through the Most Significant Change (MSC) methodology. MSC is an evaluative approach, where the process captures participants’ positive stories of change, and explores the details that make an intervention successful. The stories are collected via interviews, and these stories were then reflected upon and validated by the working group, with the ‘most significant’ change being sorted and categorised into ‘domains’ of change. You can find out more about this process here.
‘We’re so immersed in the work that we do that we don’t take the time to reflect on the changes we’ve made – in the community, for individual girls, even in the organisation‘
- Amina Hanga, Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative – CSC Network and Working Group Member
A key takeaway point from this work is the clear need for us all to advocate for the power of longer-term interventions with women and girls, which allow for programme adaptability and flexibility where needed – allowing to focus on the individual without the pull to standardise. Longer programmes with secure funding also allow for more trust building and engagement with the community, which is a vital feature of many of the stories of change that came out of this process. Communities of course include the women themselves, but also male gatekeepers that hold significant power in those women and girls’ lives. Small, adaptable grassroots organisations are key here: they understand the issue and the context due to proximity and familiarity, and are critical actors in bringing communities and stakeholders together to create solutions that are better fit to the context.
What now?
In 2022, we’ll focus on finalising this Most Significant Change process and sharing our learning with the wider CSC network, with the hope this can be adapted to others’ contexts – whether or not they work with street connected girls. This has been made possible thanks to the individual donors who generously contributed during CSC’s Big Give Christmas Campaign, as this appeal raised vital funds to continue this vital work – not just with the working group, but with our wider network.
This International Women’s Day, we want to reiterate our commitment to platforming narratives and actions that place street girls and women not as victims but as vital, active agents mobilising significant social change. We also want to recognise the organisations within our network that are doing fantastic, tireless and difficult work in this area. It is their commitment, creativity and tenacity that allows our network to amplify the voices of the women and girls they work with; not only on the 8th of March but throughout the rest of the year.
CSC would like to thank Amos Trust, Child Action Lanka, KDM Indonesia, Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative Nigeria, Chhori Nepal, uMthombo South Africa, We Yone Foundation Sierra Leone, New Generation Burundi, Glad’s House, Karunalaya India and Dr Harriot Beazley, University of the Sunshine Coast Australia, and David Walker, Senior Consultant, ITAD, for their commitment and enthusiasm to the working group. Without you, this work would simply not be possible.
If you would like to find out more about the work of CSC’s working group on Women & Girls, or get involved please contact Lucy Rolington on projects@streetchildren.org