What We Do

Our community-based programmes are focused on strengthening the capacity of women and girls to enable them to champion their own paths to sustainable development and become a catalyst for building strong societies globally. Our services are offered to our target groups irrespective of their race, ethnicity or religious affiliation.

Our Work is Two-Fold

In Ireland, Breakforth focuses on supporting women and girls (particularly those of African descent) to achieve lasting growth and holistically develop their capacity for effective community participation by:

Facilitating learning through capacity building programmes (training and information sessions),
Working with governmental and non-governmental bodies to improve access to services and opportunities.

In the developing countries where we work, we focus on poverty alleviation and sustainable development by transforming the lives of vulnerable women and girls to enable them free themselves, families and communities from poverty through Education and Income Generating Activities. Breakforth also builds the capacity of women and girls to become community leaders through capacity building, mentoring programmes, training and community education.

We influence communities to cultivate cultures that value women and girls through collaboration with governmental and non-governmental bodies, local partners and community leaders.

Our Work

Girl’s Education

Millions of girls around the world are denied access to education. Poverty, early marriage, discrimination, poor menstrual hygiene amongst others are barriers that prevents many girls from getting quality education. One of our aim in Breakforth is to contribute to closing the gender gap in education and to achieve this, we design and implement gender focus projects. Among such initiatives are our “Second chance” programme which help girls who drop out of school get back into the educational system using a need-based approach. We work with men to encourage them to challenge ingrained discriminatory norms that prevent girls from going to school. We partner with HAGEP on providing sanitary napkins for girls from disadvantaged background to keep them in school during their menstrual circle. We also educate the public on the importance of girl’s education by raising awareness on our social platforms.

Violence Against Women and Girls

Gender-based violence is known to be one of the most prevalent and sadly, the most unrecognised. The statistics on gender-based violence are shocking as one in three women will be subjected to violence during her lifetime and one in four women is physically or sexually abused during pregnancy, according to U.N. data. Violence have a negative impact on women as it can negatively affect their physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health, and may increase vulnerability to HIV.
Our approach in combating these hideous act is by primary prevention and supporting victims through:

Engaging men and boys as partners to challenge deep rooted norms that leads to violence against women and girls
Empower young people to speak up against the act
Educate young women and girls on how to recognise a violent relationship and exit immediately
Promote gender equality by creating awareness on issues that pertains to gender inequality
Support women and girl’s victim through need-based approach

Leadership and Participation

We at Breakforth believe that investing in young women and adolescent girl’s leadership is crucial to social change now and for the future. Breakforth affirms the importance of young women and girls’ leadership. We work with partners and youths to encourage the leadership
development of young women and adolescent girls through inclusive, culturally sensitive and
rights-based leadership programmes.
Our leadership development strategy includes:

Leadership training
Regional and global events
Creating a safe space where young women and adolescent girls can meet to discuss both personal and societal issues that concerns them
Mentoring
Social media forums designed to provide support and information network for young women leaders.

All Girls Arise Leadership Development conferences/seminars/workshops/regional and global event topics are carefully chosen to create passion, build self-esteem and confidence in young women and girls, not only to make positive changes in their lives, but also to inspire them to be a part of the solution that creates lasting impact in their communities and the world at large.

Peace Building

As an organization, we promote peace through strategic engagement of women in partnership with other critical stakeholders in the society.

Records have shown that women constitute more than half the entire population in most communities across the globe. In most conflicts or crisis situations, women and children are the worst hit. It is therefore imperative that women are actively mobilized and engaged in the process of peace building within our communities.

Our Projects

Second Chance

Our “second chance” project aims to close the gender gap in education by helping girls who dropped out of school due to child marriage or teenage pregnancy get back into the educational system.

sheLEAD

“sheLEAD is a leadership initiative designed to support the development of young women and adolescent girl’s leadership skills, to assist them have greater influence over their lives and participate effectively in leadership processes at local and international levels. The program aims to raise the next generation of female impact leaders in every area of society.

Support A Sister

An economic empowerment programme designed to improve self-employment opportunities for marginalised women and girls in Africa. This scheme aims to help participants to start up and grow their small/medium businesses through skill training, micro-finance, mentoring and support networks.

Men Do Care

Engages and empower men and boys as allies to challenge actions and societal norms that leads to violence against women and girls using a holistic approach.

A Date With Purpose

The programme creates a space for women to stimulate dialogue which reveals issues that concern them on both personal and societal level. The forum also provides the opportunity for women to share practical solutions that helps strengthen their capacity, through shared lived experience. It is a platform where women are equipped with necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to engineer their paths to success and live a purpose filled life.

Hope for Life

The programme creates a space for women to stimulate dialogue which reveals issues that concerns them on both personal and societal level. It is a platform where women are equipped with necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to engineer their paths to success. This forum also provides the opportunity for women to share practical solutions that helps strengthen their capacity, through shared lived experience. The programme focuses on identifying barriers that affects women and girls in society and the removal of these barriers.

Why Women

We focus on women because, in our world today, and as it has always been the trend, women play a huge role in meeting basic family needs yet they have limited access to necessary resources, information and freedom of action required to meet this daunting responsibilities.

FACTS

Research has proven that the vast majority of the world’s poor are women, two-third of the world’s illiterates are female and the most affected by abuse of any type are women.

Some estimates show women represent 70% of the world’s poor with statistics indicating that women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help their families and communities escape poverty.

Studies have shown that women play an active and vital role in any society, as they are the major pillars behind the nurturing of both current and future generations.

When women are empowered, society have healthier families and an increase in family income which in turn leads to increase in societal revenue and poverty reduction.

OUR BELIEF

We believe that every woman matters and that the holistic development of women is a key catalyst for bringing about community re-engagement, transformation and poverty alleviation. We believe that the journey to ending poverty, building strong families and societies starts with women. “If you empower a woman, you empower a nation.”