Advocacy Capacity Building
BIGGER
Building a Greater Girls’ Rights Movement
The BIGGER Movement is training and mobilizing at-risk teen girls to mobilize, advocate for their rights, demand change at both local and national levels, and raise public awareness about girls' rights. The movement focuses on two key areas: child marriage and menstrual rights.
“For them, never without them.”
- that’s our motto.
Through our advocacy programs, girls receive training that equips them with the skills to engage policymakers and act as community catalysts for change to mobilize against child marriage.
The Problem
In Morocco, child marriage rates have significantly increased over the past 18 years. While the Moroccan Family Code, or Moudawana, has been pivotal in shaping family law, it still contains critical loopholes that contribute to this issue.
Updates to the Moudawana are currently underway, and we remain hopeful for progress in closing these gaps and reducing the prevalence of child marriage.
Consequences of underage marriage include
Our Solution
3 Trips to the Capital
Scaling UP
Advocating for national policy change through trips to the capital, where girls take the lead in lobbying parliamentarians, ministries, and government representatives to push for the reform of the Family Code.
800+ National and International Stakeholders Engaged
89+ Sites
40+ Girls meeting with ministries parliamentaria-ns and UN representatives
Scaling OUT
Empowering teen girls in over 40 locations across Morocco with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to understand their rights, advocate for themselves, and stand against child marriage.
6600+ Girls Engaged
370+ girls trained
70+ Bigger Coalition Members
100+ Soar Dialogues Held
Scaling DEEP
Hosting Community Dialogues on child marriage to engage parents, local leaders, teachers, and others in open conversations, aiming to shift cultural attitudes and challenge the norms that enable child marriage.
5000+ Community members engaged
2000+ signatures to end child marriage
BIGGER Health
Building a Greater Girls’ Rights Movement to advocate for Menstrual Health rights in Morocco
With an overarching goal to empower marginalized teen girls in Morocco to mobilize, advocate and demand change at the local + national levels related to their menstrual health & well-being, this initiative aims to end menstrual insecurity in Morocco.
The problem
Menstrual Insecurity is a common obstacle faced by teen girls in Morocco and impedes gender equality, health and education. Inadequate WASH facilities at schools, a lack of understanding of menstruation and how to appropriately manage their periods, cultural stigmas associated with menstruation, and a lack of accessibility to menstrual products for teen girls living beneath the poverty line all combine to push marginalized teen girls into menstrual insecurity.
Girls often have difficulty managing their periods properly, using scraps of fabric or cut-up diapers. Many schools have inadequate WASH facilities, making it difficult for girls to manage their periods safely and with dignity. Without private, functional toilets or trash cans for disposing of menstrual products, girls often stay at home when they have their period; this leads girls to fall behind in class or drop out of school altogether. Once out of school, girls are at extreme risk of child marriage.
Learn more about our efforts to address period poverty in Morocco through the Soar x Hurya Sustainable Menstrual Kit. Check it out here!
Our Solution
Project Soar recognizes that progress for marginalized communities is only possible when excluded groups have a platform for dialogue, tools for participatory actions and the opportunity to influence their circumstances through direct dialogue with key stakeholders; Through BIGGER Health we seek to build the capacity of teen girls in marginalized communities to advocate for their menstrual health at their schools. Additionally, armed with a BIGGER-Health Declaration, a delegation of these trained teen girls will take an advocacy trip to the capital to meet with ministry officials, parliamentarians, ambassadors and UN agencies to advocate for change.
Our impact
We are tirelessly collaborating with civil society organizations to amplify our impact.
If you’re an organization committed to defending the rights of girls and women in Morocco and you’re interested in joining the BIGGER Movement Coalition, contact us at giveback@projectsoar.org !
This project is funded by:
