Girls

Lubuto identifies gender practices that impede the full integration of African girls into society and addresses them with targeted collections and information resources, outreach and programming that promotes social inclusion and role modeling, and transforms understandings of sexual and reproductive health and gender based violence. In 2016, Lubuto was awarded a DREAMS Innovation Challenge grant to use the public library as a platform to keep girls in secondary school and HIV/AIDS free. Lubuto received a ViiV "Communities for Change" grant in 2018 to help curb the alarmingly high rates of child marriage in rural Zambia.

Examples of programs specially serving girls include:

• A makerspace where community members can learn skills like sewing, pottery, carving, technology, and coding—equipping married and unmarried girls with skills that will increase their economic independence

• Role-model mentoring for adolescent girls and young women that focuses on overcoming discriminatory gender norms, equipping girls with HIV and sexual and reproductive health information and access to services, and fostering girls' resilience and determination to succeed

• Peer mentor leadership training to empower girls and enable them to inform and inspire other girls, particularly regarding gender equity, girls’ rights and sexual and reproductive health, and to give back to their communities

• Providing educational support for girls with crowdsourced comprehensive scholarships, which include tuition, books, uniforms, school supplies, feminine hygiene products and tutoring

Stories