Julesa is 9 years old and lives in the seaside Southeast region of Haiti. Surrounded by lush mountain landscape, her community of La Vallée is one in which Beyond Borders has been working extensively to end violence against women and girls by balancing the power dynamics between men and women and empowering girls!

The National school Julesa attends has been participating in Beyond Borders’ Power to Girls programming, which teaches valuable lessons about gender equality in her classroom.

This empowering lesson is one that Julesa has really connected to, “At school, we learn about the rights of girls. Girls and boys have the same power; they can do all the same activities! Now, the way girls and boys interact has changed. Before, they used to say ‘boys are better at math and girls are better at French,’ but now we know we are all good at everything!”

Julesa’s mother sees the difference programs like these are making in the life of her daughter and her family. “My daughter told me that boys and girls are equal and have the same power, they can do the same kind of work. Now my daughter does the same house chores as her cousin Paul. I use to say this is work for a girl not for a boy and vice versa, now I don’t say that anymore.”

Without community intervention like Power to Girls, girls like Julesa are at great risk of physical and sexual violence, when families don’t understand the value of girls they are more likely to send girls away into domestic work and less likely to support their daughter’s educational aspirations.

Girls like Julesa are only able to realize their Girl Power when they are free, educated and feel safe in their communities. Through the work of Beyond Borders, supported by the Girl Power Haiti Campaign, these dreams are becoming a reality for so many Haitian girls!

We invite you to learn more about the Girl Power Haiti Campaign and its work to support girls like Julesa by visiting www.girlpowerhaiti.org