City Wire | Sahar Zand | Empower, Educate, Inspire: Raising Girls Up
Katie Gilfillan caught up with Rising Girl, the charity that is tackling hard issues facing school age girls head on. She also chatted with Paris Jordan, senior multi-asset analyst at Waverton who is a trustee of the charity.
Rising Girl is a charity that wants to empower girls through education so they can succeed later in life. Poverty, body image, violence, are all barriers to education and they’re on a mission to change that. Difficult topics to discuss are happening in these schools and this programme is one of the only charities that discusses honour-based violence and helps girls to overcome these challenges writes Katie Gilfillan.
On International Women’s Day it is important to highlight the good work that they’re doing at schools within deprived areas of Birmingham. These schools don’t get help or information elsewhere, so the workshops, which include topics like healthy relationships, online grooming and sexual exploitation, that are being taken into these schools are an especially important part of the programme that Rising Girl offers.
One of the fundraising efforts to help them continue their efforts was a 5k walk around London on 6 March which followed a route encompassing famous statues of inspiring women such as Florence Nightingale and Agatha Christie. Blink and you’ll miss them though, some of these are hidden in plain sight with one proudly showcased at a busy intersection in Covent Garden.
Sahar Zand, Iranian journalist and tv presenter, joined us on the day and gave an incredible speech about the legal virginity clinics operating in the UK. Undercover, she created a documentary about it and the horrifying nature of them, due to this investigation a law was passed in parliament making these clinics illegal.
Choosing London for a Birmingham based charity seemed like an odd choice but Danielle Brook, acting CEO of the charity explains.
‘We have always held our walk in London, with the view of raising awareness of our charity nationally, but also as we are fortunate to be supported by a few London companies. London is the city with the highest number of honour-based violence and killings, with Birmingham being the second worst. ‘
One such trustees mentioned is Paris Jordan, senior multi-asset analyst at Waverton. Brook said, ‘She’s been an incredible support and helps to get the word out.’
I caught up with Jordan after the walk to pick her brain about why she chose this charity.
Why did you become a trustee of Rising Girl?
After meeting with the fellow trustees, who showed such drive and passion, Rising Girl seemed the perfect fit for me as I could make impact whilst supporting a cause close to my heart. I wanted to work with a charity that I knew was making actually grassroots impact and I could see first-hand how important Rising Girl had been to a number of the girls who had joined to the programme. The charity is small, and growing rapidly, and I wanted to be able to use some of the skills I’ve learned in my career to the benefit of young women who are often overlooked; this was the perfect opportunity to make a tangible difference.
What is one thing you’re most proud of since joining?
I am most proud of the continual development of our programmes, which have been pivotal to our success. Our acting CEO, Danielle Brook, has worked relentlessly to ensure our girls receive the most benefit from our programmes and we have witnessed such incredible take-up and feedback from our schools. Our girls have felt comfortable sharing deeply traumatic and difficult stories in these programmes and I am extremely proud that we have created a safe space to support, educate and protect these girls.