Girls Empowerment Program (GEP)

Girls Empowerment Program (GEP) is sponsored by RefuSHE / Together Women Rise. The Girls Empowerment Program (GEP) is a comprehensive education program that aims to break the poverty cycle by preparing refugee girls and young women in Kenya with the skills they need to rebuild their lives and get a start on their entrepreneurial futures.

RefuSHE - Together Women Rise Featured Grantee Fact Sheet About the Together Women Rise Grants Program The Together Women Rise Grants Program has two key components that support our overall mission to achieve global gender equality. Featured Grants are largely focused on delivering direct services by funding grassroots organizations that empower and support women and girls in low-income and marginalized communities in the Global South.

Our Transformation Partnerships are designed to invest in areas where we can make the biggest impact on achieving global gender equality by addressing the root causes of gender inequality. Through our Featured Grants Program, we highlight a different organization/project each month, providing a variety of learning materials on the issue and how the grant will be used.

Through the Featured Grants program, we support capacity building, new programs, or expansion of existing programs. The following is information on the grant we are featuring for June 2025. Women & girl refugees are often trapped in poverty The global refugee crisis is more severe today than ever before.

In 2024, there were 38 million refugees worldwide (49% female), roughly double the population just 10 years ago. The numbers skyrocket to more than 122 million when internally displaced people, asylum seekers, and others in need of international protection are included. People are forced to flee due to conflict/violence or natural disasters/climate emergencies and sometimes both.

When fleeing conflict, women and girls often suffer while displaced – unable to return home, unable to move forward with new lives elsewhere. The UNHCR is the primary agency responsible for safeguarding and assisting refugees worldwide. According to the UNHCR, refugee women and girls are left particularly vulnerable to violence because the normal structures of protection often disappear in the crisis of displacement.

They lack access to education, health care, including maternal care. Economic opportunities, if they existed, vanish. If they are able to earn income at all, women refugees are often limited to informal work for low pay.

According to a 2016 report from UN Women, 60 percent of preventable maternal mortality deaths take place in settings of conflict, displacement and natural disasters. UNHCR is the primary agency responsible for safeguarding and assisting refugees worldwide. In 2024, UNHCR spent $10 billion serving refugees, most of which was donated by high-income countries (The United States donated $2 billion in 2024).

Host countries also play a significant role in assisting refugees by providing essential services, which can be a strain, especially in low-income countries where many refugees are hosted. Across the globe, cuts to humanitarian funding are having a devastating impact, according to UNHCR.

Consider these spring 2025 updates from UNHCR: In South Sudan, only 25 percent of the dedicated spaces created by UNHCR for women and girls at risk of violence are currently operational, leaving up to 80,000 people without access to services such as emergency psychosocial support and legal and medical assistance.

Programs to protect refugees – particularly adolescent girls – from child marriage and other forms of violence have been suspended, putting more than 2,000 of them at increased risk. In Ethiopia, more than 200,000 refugees and internally displaced persons no longer have access to life-saving services, including a safe house that used to host women in immediate danger of being killed.

In Jordan, at least 63 programs providing specialist support to women and girls are closing down or on hold, leaving 200,000 vulnerable people in both refugee and host communities without help. Nearly half of all school-aged refugee children are missing out on formal education, according to UNHCR . Access to higher education among the refugee population is rare, only 7 percent, compared to 40 percent of the global population.

According to UNICEF, in countries affected by conflict, girls are also twice as likely to be out of school than those living in non-conflict affected countries. Women and girl refugees, especially those who are unaccompanied, orphaned, and separated from family, are especially vulnerable to dangers like female genital mutilation/cutting, forced marriages, and sexual violence.

When stranded in urban centers without basic provisions from UNHCR or access to government social services in Kenya, they face extreme poverty and increased vulnerability to gender-based violence (GBV). Since 1975, more than 3 million refugees from all over the world have resettled in the United States.

Together Women Rise is funding a $50,000 Featured Grant to RefuSHE, an organization we previously supported in 2013 when it was known as Heshima Kenya. This latest grant will support the Girls Empowerment Program (GEP) a comprehensive education program that prepares refugee girls and young women in Kenya with the skills they need to rebuild their lives and get a start on their entrepreneurial futures.

RefuSHE is an organization for refugee girls, by refugee girls. Its core value is “heshima,” a Swahili word that means respect, honor, and dignity. It serves refugee girls and young women – one of the world’s most vulnerable populations, prioritizing the needs of those living in Nairobi who have been separated or orphaned due to war, conflict, violence, and drought.

RefuSHE is the only organization in Kenya dedicated to providing tailored, holistic programming to refugee girls and young women, where they can learn, heal, grow and become empowered leaders. RefuSHE’s holistic model is rights-based, trauma-informed, and girl-centered, which means its lens is shaped by the experiences, development, and needs of the girls and young women it serves.

RefuSHE believes that every refugee girl and young woman deserves a life of dignity with equal access to safety, education, and economic prosperity.

RefuSHE’s key programs include: Case management : to ensure specialized care and a holistic, comprehensive, individualized service plan Safe House : a transitional shelter that provides protection and recovery to unaccompanied and separated refugee girls and their children Mental health : evidence-based programs including arts and movement therapy, a psychoeducation workshop specifically created for refugee girls, talk therapy, and more Education : A holistic approach to education rooted in the Girls Empowerment Program (GEP) – strengthening academic and economic achievement by providing refugee girls with school scholarships, life skills workshops, leadership development, vocational training, information and communications technology (ICT) classes, onsite childcare, daily meals, and access to a wide variety of livelihood opportunities Artisan Collective : a peer-driven social enterprise that empowers refugee women with the education and opportunities they need to become skilled, confident, and economically independent entrepreneurs Legal aid : helping girls gain proper legal identity documents needed for almost every facet of life, including education, healthcare, and employment Community protection : includes training related to gender-based violence/sexual exploitation and abuse (GBV/SEA).

Since 2008, RefuSHE has served thousands of young refugee women, girls, and their children across East Africa, including 1,000 refugee girls in its Girls Empowerment Program and 884 children and young women in its Safe House. It has also provided services to over 5,000 urban refugees and host community members and over 1,000 local government officials through its Community-Based Protection and Livelihoods program.

Life Challenges of the Women & Girls Served Kenya is home to some of the world’s largest refugee camps. In 2024, Kenya hosted 700,000 registered refugees, most of whom resided in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. The Kenyan government established these refugee camps in the early 1990s to address the influx of refugees fleeing civil wars in neighboring Somalia and Sudan.

The camps were initially intended to be temporary, but due to ongoing conflicts and other factors, the camps have remained in place and continue to receive new refugees. The Kenyan government also established a strict encampment policy in the early 1990s in response to the large influx of refugees, which severely restricted refugees’ movement and ability to integrate into Kenyan society.

In 2021, the Kenyan government enacted a new refugee policy that aims to eliminate that strict encampment policy and increase integration of refugees into Kenyan society. Kenya’s shift in refugee policy reflects a move away from viewing refugees as a temporary humanitarian concern toward fostering their economic self-reliance, but implementation of this new policy is still ongoing.

Efforts are underway to transform refugee camps into integrated settlements, but specific legislation and regulations are still needed to fully implement the new rights granted to refugees, particularly regarding business registration, land ownership, and employment. The process is slow. Although most refugees in Kenya live in refugee camps, roughly 100,000 live in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.

This number likely underestimates the total number of refugees living in Nairobi, as many refugees live in the city without official documentation. Particularly vulnerable among this population are refugee girls and young women since they are at heightened risk of sexual and emotional violence, physical abuse, domestic servitude, early marriage, early pregnancy, female genital mutilation/cutting, extortion, and human trafficking.

Half of RefuSHE’s program participants have experienced some form of gender-based violence (GBV). They also face challenges related to integration into host communities, cultural differences, and the psychological impact of displacement. They have fled instability and persecution in their home countries across East Africa in search of protection and essential needs like clean water, food, shelter, and health care.

Stranded in urban centers without basic provisions from UNHCR or access to government social services in Kenya, they endure extreme poverty and heightened vulnerability to GBV. Living outside of refugee camps, they often fall through the gaps of protection and become invisible. Refugee girls often lack access to education.

Although they are eligible to attend primary and secondary schools in Nairobi, they often do not because they do not have the necessary documentation, such as ID cards or birth certificates, which are required to attend school. In addition, there are school fees, transportation costs, and costs for books, uniforms, and other educational costs that they cannot afford.

Refugee girls can also be constrained by family expectations that can interfere with their ability to study and attend school. Schools are also often overcrowded and may not be welcoming to refugee students. While refugees are legally eligible to work in Kenya, they often face significant barriers that limit their ability to obtain legal work.

To gain legal employment, refugees must have a work permit. Applications for work permits require a recommendation from a prospective employer and documentation of official refugee status. Given these requirements, only a few refugees are eligible.

Some refugee girls work in the informal sector, but this can be very risky. Informal jobs often offer low wages, lack job security, and do not provide social protection. Some girls may be exploited, including being pressured into forms of sexual exploitation.

Refugee girls living in Nairobi can acquire a business license from the city council to start a business, but a lack of capital or credit often makes that impossible. In addition, refugee girls also face gender-based and cultural norms that prevent them from engaging in economic activities while prioritizing unpaid care and domestic work.

Refugee girls may struggle to integrate into host communities due to language barriers, cultural differences, and the challenges of navigating a new social environment. The trauma of displacement, loss, and violence can have a significant impact on the mental health of refugee girls. Displacement and social isolation can make it difficult for them to build supportive networks and access resources.

How the Grant Will be Used Together Women Rise will fund RefuSHE’s Girls Empowerment Program , a comprehensive education program that aims to break the poverty cycle by preparing refugee girls and young women with the skills they need to rebuild their lives.

Through the Girls Empowerment Program, RefuSHE focuses on strengthening academic and economic achievement by providing refugee girls with: information and communications technology (ICT) classes access to a wide variety of livelihood opportunities. Life skills training and legal aid assistance are provided for participants, so they can obtain official documentation as refugees and build confidence and leadership.

Empower girls and young women, ages 14 to 25, with dressmaking and cottage skills (fashion design and tailoring vocational training classes) and register them for National Industrial Trade Authority Exams certification. Enhance their access to livelihoods through internship and entrepreneurship opportunities leading to greater employment. Equip participants with weekly life skills sessions.

Provide transport, meals, and training materials for 36 girls and young women and their children for 12 months. Support participants for one-month internship opportunities .

IMPACT – Direct: 400 women and girls; Indirect: 1,600 women and girls Why We Love This Project/Organization We love that RefuSHE’s programs are for refugee girls and women in urban Nairobi, where refugees often face unique vulnerabilities due to limited access to services, employment barriers, and heightened risks of exploitation.

By operating in this under-resourced urban setting, RefuSHE is filling a critical gap in support and protection for displaced women and girls. As more people are displaced and more women/girls need refuge, the need for this program is expected to increase. Sifa is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who recently joined RefuSHE’s Girls Empowerment Program.

She is the eldest of seven siblings. Upon fleeing to Kenya, Sifa recalls that her parents were disoriented in a new country as refugees, where they did not speak or understand the language and could not find work for survival. Their difficulty in adjusting led Sifa to take on the responsibility of becoming the sole provider for her siblings and parents who were struggling to find footing in a new country.

Sifa began her Kenyan education not in her age-appropriate grade, but back in the category of “pre-unit” among children years younger the she. Every day brought laughter at her expense – taunts of being “too old” for the classroom. But Sifa persevered.

High school brought new trials – school fees came in late or not at all. The shame of her age difference lingered, and yet she persisted. She held tight to her dreams and walked through every barrier until she held her high school certificate in her hands.

After graduation, economic empowerment still seemed unattainable. But everything changed when she discovered a call for application to RefuSHE’s Girls Empowerment Program. Sifa is now enrolled in RefuSHE’s vocational training track in tailoring, where she learns basic dressmaking and design skills.

Like all of RefuSHE’s program participants, she also receives holistic care in the form of mental health counseling, life skills workshops, legal aid, and daily meals. Sifa is now part of a community by refugee girls, for refugee girls where she is surrounded by young women who have walked a path similar to her own and are dedicated to building a better life. She lives by the mantra, “When you want to go to the moon, you aim at the sun.

” To her, it means setting your sights so high that even if you fall short, you will still land among the stars. Now with the support of RefuSHE, Sifa has found her voice, her purpose, and her power. She is no longer defined by being a refugee.

She is a fighter, a dreamer, and a young woman ready to rise. Shop! Watch!

Read! Listen!

World Bank-UNHCR report, 2024, Economic Participation and the Global Cost of International Assistance in support of Refugee Subsistence Needs World Bank, 2021, Understanding the Socioeconomic Conditions of Refugees in Kenya Volume C: Urban Refugees Results from the 2020–21 Urban Socioeconomic Survey World Bank, 2024, Building Evidence To Enhance The Welfare Of Refugees And Host Communities Insights from the Kenya Longitudinal Socioeconomic Study of Refugees and Host Communities UNHCR Women and Girls news UN Refugee Agency, Refugee Data Finder UN Women Refugees and Migrants GBV: Gender-based violence GEP: Girls Empowerment Program ICT: information and communications technology UNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The Global South: The Global South includes the countries that experience higher levels of poverty, income inequality, lower life expectancy, and harsh living conditions compared to the wealthier nations in the “Global North” – located mostly in North America and Europe.

The Global South primarily includes many of the countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East. Stay in touch with Together Women Rise