Who We Are

Bridging the gender equality gap since 2012

We provide medically accurate and evidence-based comprehensive health and sexuality education to advance gender equality by fostering empowered, healthy, and informed decision making in adolescent girls and young women.

A country’s economic standing is directly correlated with the health and education of its girls.

“We exist for the 2 out of 3 girls worldwide who have no idea what is happening to them when they start menstruation. For the 66% of young people around the world cannot demonstrate accurate knowledge of HIV prevention and transmission. For the estimated 20,000 women who are killed every year, for the countless others who do not feel safe walking the streets at night, for no other reason than being female.”

Pavita Singh - GHE Executive Director

Who Is GHE?

Girls Health Ed is a nonprofit organization founded, operated, and led by women of color whose mission is to advance gender equality by fostering empowered, healthy, and informed decision making in adolescent girls and young women through comprehensive health and sexuality education.

Where Are We?

We serve adolescent girls and young women, ages 8+, from underserved communities in the United States and internationally. We currently operate in Washington, DC; New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; and New Orleans, LA and in Kenya (Nairobi, Nyamira, and Kogelo). We’ve also hosted pilot programs in Hyderabad, India and Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.

Why There?

These locations were chosen due to the high rates of such conditions as HIV/AIDS and other STIs, early and unwanted pregnancy, gender-based violence, and obesity. We conduct our programs in locations where we see a demand, where we receive requests, and where we have a strong network of Teaching Fellows, partners, and volunteers.

How We Started and How It’s Going

“Feminism is not feminism unless it’s intersectional. Socio-economic status, race, religion, geography, sexuality, and other factors underlie whether or not someone can have the equal opportunity. No one is free unless everyone is free. If one person is vulnerable, everyone is vulnerable. When we founded Girls Health Ed, the founding board and I started with low-income Black and Latinx adolescents first. We know that interventions work best when we start with those who are traditionally last.”

Sarah Hillware – GHE Founder and Board Chair

Our Values

We believe that every girl and young woman should have the information that they need to make healthy and informed decisions about their lives.
We believe that reaching girls during adolescence provides the greatest potential for change and that gender inequities are best addressed through programs that target adolescent girls.
We see comprehensive health and sexuality education as a critical part of the solution to addressing gender inequities and to changing gender social norms.
We believe that health education should not be siloed, but rather give equal emphasis to all aspects of health and wellbeing.
We believe in providing leadership opportunities to those who have traditionally been left behind, including low-income girls and young women and girls and young women of color, and giving them the tools to unleash their voices and their power.

Your Support Is Powerful!

Join our efforts to improve the lives of girls and young women through comprehensive health and sexuality education. Thanks to your continued support, we can expand our reach and help even more girls and young women change their lives.