Join the movement for girls’ rights

In the midst of the global hunger crisis, with 50 million people on the brink of famine, we campaigned alongside other organisations in the humanitarian sector for urgent funding from the Australian government to help save lives.

In 2023, the Australian Government announced an additional $69 million emergency assistance package to support famine affected communities since we launched the Help Fight Famine campaign.

The funds will go towards providing food, water and other essential support.

In the 2022 federal election, we called on political parties to urgently set targets to ensure our Parliament reflects the diversity of the country we live in, because young women and gender-diverse people deserve a place in our democracy.

Thanks to your support, the new Parliament has greater representation of both women and people of different ethnicities.

Read more about the Represent Us campaign.

You supported a group of young campaigners who were determined to change the high rates of child marriage in their country – more than half of young women were married as children.

In 2015 a Bill was passed by the Malawian government that outlawed child marriage. But the new law was undermined by the country’s constitution, which still allowed children to be married from 16, with parental consent.

In partnership with Plan International,meli the youth activists continued their campaign to close this loophole. Together we launched a petition, asking people around the world to stand with young activists and more than 42,000 of you did! Your support made sure their voices were heard and in February 2017 the government approved a bill to make child marriage illegal, for good!

Every day, girls are being trafficked within Nepal, across the border into India and overseas. They’re being forcibly taken, coerced, targeted by men posing as their boyfriends and lured with the promise of work and a new life.

Once they’re taken away from their homes, these girls are being sexually exploited in brothels. They’re being forced into child marriage, domestic servitude and to work in clothes factories. They’re being abused for others’ gain, and it has to stop.

That’s why we asked you to share your messages of support with youth advocates Sarita and Sabina and sign their petition, as they campaigned to get their Mayor to take action – and the response was overwhelming, with more than 46,000 of you around the world adding your name.

With your support, Sarita and Sabina asked their Mayor to commit to end the trafficking of girls in Nepal – and he’s agreed to take action. As a result, a new public awareness campaign will be launched, to make sure every girl in their area knows about the risks.

In Uganda, as many as one in ten girls have been affected by sexual abuse and exploitation, and girls tell us that this is a real issue for them at work. In bars, restaurants and lodges, girls are being coerced into having sex with the boss to get their job – and forced to have sex with customers to keep it.

Living in poverty with little option for escape means that many girls and young women are at high risk of exploitation. Financially desperate, and often with children, parents and siblings to support, they have no choice but to stay in the job, hoping it will get better.

When they are brave enough to speak out about what’s happening to them, they’re often ignored, not taken seriously, or silenced. It’s a terrible abuse of power – and it has to stop.

Over 500,000 people around the world, including from Australia, stood in solidarity with Ugandan youth advocates Faridah, Fiona and Rowlings. Together, we secured a commitment by the Ugandan Government to launch a review into the sexual exploitation of girls and young women at work.