Friend and fellow capoeirista, Julia Lynch, has created a non-profit called Global Girl Project that offers young women from developing countries, the opportunity to come to the United States for short term exchange programs. The Global Girl Project’s mission statement is:
Julia is a Therapeutic Behavioral specialist, originally from Toronto, but now living in Los Angeles. She graduated with a degree in Social Work and from the beginning has worked to promote community development by helping families, and particularly young people who find themselves in difficult domestic situations. Her career experience joined with her passion for world travel and her “never-give-up” attitude, have led her to develop Global Girl Project. Julia says that if she’s learned one thing from travel is that no matter where we are from, what we look like or how much money we have, people universally have the need to be loved, to feel safe, to be taken care of. Those are needs she wants to address through the Global Girl project.
Where did you get the idea for Global Girl Project?
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| Founder of Global Girl Project, Julia Lynch |
For the last 5 – 6 years I have wanted to move into the realm of international development but I got stalled trying to find the best way to do it. After years of searching I realized that, if you have the guts to do it, the best way is to go out on your own and make it happen.
I started to think about my own experiences of going abroad and immersing myself in different cultures and how that opened my mind as to what I expected from myself as a person and to what I could achieve.
We have many opportunities for young people from developed countries to go and experience life in developing countries, but the opposite does not really exist. I wanted to enable young people from improvised communities to gain experience with cultures and concepts outside of their towns.
I chose to focus particularly on young women because countless studies have shown that one of the best ways to combat poverty is to educate women. These studies show that young women are more likely than young men to bring what they have learned back to their community to make a difference for not only for themselves, but also for their families, their children and their community.
Ever since I began working in social work, community development has been my main focus, and to make a change in a community it is most successful when it comes from within. My idea is to provide learning opportunities for promising young women who will then return to their communities and implement that change and pass that along to their peers and their siblings.
Can you please tell us about your first initiative with Global Girl Project?
The first initiative will be with young women in Brazil. For me this was a great place to start because I have connected to the culture through the Brazilain martial art of Capoeira which I have trained for a number of years. Through both social and professional connections and my research, I was able to get in contact with an organization called Casa do Caminho Language Center which was started by a man name Bart who spent 6 years working at an orphanage in Brazil. Bart and I have formed a partnership together to help up to 5 young women who have grown up in the orphanage in Xerem, Brazil (a town approximately 30 miles from Rio de Janeiro).
The selected women from Xerem, Brazil will come to Los Angeles in the summer of 2014 for 1 month of study, exploration, English training and interaction with strong women in the community from various professional backgrounds. Also, I do not only want to provide them with a set curriculum that I decide on, but also tailor it to match their personal/professional interests as well. The young women will then develop their own small sustainable projects which they can then take home with them. Once they return home after the exchange program, we will continue to work with them to help them implement their selected project.
In addition we’d like to have them experience an American university setting, have them participate in a wilderness challenge and experience a typical American home life by staying with local host families.
How do you see Global Girl Project growing over the next 5 years?
I have a number of connections with people working in Haiti, in Uganda and in the Philippines. In my “perfect world” each year I will add on another country while still maintaining the country projects I had started in the previous years. I plan to always keep the exchanges at approximately 1 month because I see the importance of having the participants return to their country to implement their projects as quickly as possible.
How can people help to make the opportunities for these young women a reality?
The first step is really just to talk about it and spread the word. I find that the more that I talk about it and my friends share the ideas, it reaches people who have great ideas on everything from fund raising, to publicity, to program offerings. I just ask that people please pay attention…don’t just treat it like another “fly by night” organization that is asking for a few dollars. This is hopefully something that will change the world, even if it is just on a small scale, for its participants and their communities.
A project of this scale also, obviously, needs to raise funds. Currently, I am selling beautifully designed Christmas cards, $10 USD for a package of ten cards (plus S&H). All proceeds from the card sales will go to the 2014 exchange program. Once the Christmas card campaign wraps up, there will be additional fund raisers and events leading up to the arrival of the young women of the exchange program, so keep any eye on the Global Girl project website and Facebook Page.
Also, if you are in the Los Angeles Metro Area, there are multiple ways you can help directly. I am looking for women who ca
n lead workshops for the program participants, for trustworthy individuals or families who can commit to hosting one of the young women for a month and for anyone who has connections with local or national companies who can provide anything from airline tickets and rental vans, to restaurant meals and university campus connections.
I am fully invested with my time and money, but I still need help from anyone who can donate.
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| Help can come from many sources – school project done by one of Julia’s youngest supporters. |
Thank you, Julia for taking the time to share your organization’s goals and plans with us. We wish you the best in your inaugural year and can’t wait to see what’s to come as your projects reach those who need them the most, the world over.
