Empowering girls and strengthening communities in South Africa.
How You Can Help
- Simply book your next holiday with Charitable Travel and tell us you want to support Global Sojourns Giving Circle. The charity will then benefit from the free donation you can make as part of the booking process. To read more about how this works, head to our ‘About Us‘ page.
- If you want to make a donation to Global Sojourns Giving Circle and you are not booking a holiday, click here to visit their website.
- Visit https://www.gsgivingcircle.org/ to sign up to newsletters, and follow the Global Sojourns Giving Circle social media pages and help spread the word.
How You Can Help
- Simply book your next holiday with Charitable Travel and tell us you want to support Global Sojourns Giving Circle. The charity will then benefit from the free donation you can make as part of the booking process. To read more about how this works, head to our ‘About Us‘ page.
- If you want to make a donation to Global Sojourns Giving Circle and you are not booking a holiday, click here to visit their website.
- Visit https://www.gsgivingcircle.org/ to sign up to newsletters, and follow the Global Sojourns Giving Circle social media pages and help spread the word.
Unfortunately, if you’re born a girl in most African countries, you don’t have much control over your future. And that future can be harsh: poverty, abuse, gender discrimination, lack of resources, nowhere to turn for help and very few options to improve your situation.
Being considered “less than,” stunts your potential.
Through education, mentorship, expanding possibilities and attitudinal shifts, GSGC helps girls realise a life of dignity. And they, in turn, help
others achieve the same. As study after study shows, investing in girls is one of the most effective ways to lift families and communities.
Education is one of the most critical areas of empowerment for women. When girls are educated, they lead healthier and more productive lives…
An educated girl has a positive ripple effect on her health, family, community and society as a whole.
What we do
At the heart of our work is…I See You, I Hear You, I Believe in You.
Believing in yourself is very difficult to do when your society sees you as
“less than” because you’re a girl. It is even more difficult to do when you’re trying to do it on your own. The support and benefits of having a
compassionate elder, a mentor, to hear you and guide you are well
understood by our community.
The Results
In Southern Africa, the seemingly impossible is becoming possible.
School-leaving statistics have improved. Graduates are enrolling in
post-secondary study. Pregnancies have been avoided. Violence against
girls has diminished. Attitudes have changed.
The World's Best Investment: Girls' Education
- Increases economic growth
- Leads to better wages and jobs for women
- Saves the lives of children and mothers
- Leads to smaller and more sustainable families
- Reduces rates of HIV/AIDS and Malaria
- Results in healthier and better-educated children
- Reduces rates of child marriage
- Empowers women
- Increases women’s political leadership
- Reduces harm to families from natural disasters and climate change
How We Do It
GSGC provides grants to community-based organisations run by dynamic changemakers who provide mentorship to youth, with a focus on empowering girls and the ultimate goal of breaking the cycle of deep poverty. We come alongside dynamic changemakers, social entrepreneurs in Southern Africa, who have the knowledge and the passion for empowering their communities.
What Makes us Different?
GSGC is guided by our connection with local changemakers, allowing space for everyone in the GSGC community to learn from one another.
At GSGC, we listen as local leaders show us the way, sharing our hearts and minds with gratitude for their wisdom.
We are inspired by the passion and commitment of our local partners and are proud to offer our support to the transformational programmes they create.
Together with our partners, GSGC adapts our model to best serve the needs of each community, creating impact and sustainable change “on the ground” and in ourselves.
The ripple effect of this work deeply touches the lives of everyone involved, calling us to share our work wherever it is needed.
Where it all Started
Since its start in 2007, GSGC has had its roots in international development work. We’ve been listening to, and working
alongside, local people since the beginning. This has guided our every step.
“We gathered first-hand experience and the knowledge of experts in international development to design an effective organisational development model where a small amount of funding can make a
meaningful, positive and transformational difference.”
Since its inception, GSGC has been committed to a focus on girls and local leadership. The results of this work show us, on a daily basis, that
empowering local people leads to a more meaningful and sustainable impact. And as global research now confirms, investing in girls is one of the most effective ways to both uplift families and communities and break the cycle of deep poverty.
GSGC is devoted to bringing head and heart together to enable people to create greater opportunities to live a life of dignity.
Our Founders Story
Connect. Listen. Empower. Transform. Replicate.
Points on the personal compass that has guided Priscilla Plummer in her work since 1990 in Southern and East Africa.
Before forming Global Sojourns Giving Circle (GSGC), Priscilla Plummer spent a decade in the bush, towns and cities of developing nations. She spent this time observing, learning cultural nuances and forming deep relationships.
These experiences led to a greater understanding of cultural and socio-economic landscapes, as well as a Master’s degree in International Development, with a focus on women’s issues. In addition, her degree and experience in business, as well as her position as publisher of the first US magazine dedicated to women in sports, helped to set her up well for
what was coming down the line.
This led to the Start of GSGC
Africa is one of the least understood places in the world, by Westerners. As Priscilla considered ways to help bridge the gap, she decided to create a travel company that not only provided exciting adventures but also opportunities for travellers to go deeper in their understanding and appreciation of the people and places they visited.
Global Sojourns was born!
These travellers began to ask what they could do to help reduce poverty in and around the areas they visited. And so in 2007, as a result of their enthusiasm, plus Priscilla’s years of experience in listening and learning about what works and doesn’t work in community development, GSGC was born.
Get in touch
Global Sojourns Giving Circle, 275 W 3rd St, Vancouver, WA 98660, United States
©2021 Global Sojourns Giving Circle GSGC is a 501(c)(3) registered organisation
by net effect