About Us
Join the Long Line of people making change!
Our mission is to amplify girls leadership in community circles as we work to protect girls from sexual harassment, disregard, mistreatment and violence in schools and communities. Our vision is to connect committed local groups around the globe and share resources in order to galvanize all our work. We invite you to use resources we’ve created as you help your own school and community take action to insure respect for girls. Our songs, our interviews with inspiring women and girls, our skits shown on YouTube, our program ideas, and our T shirts can all be employed to make conversation happen.
Add news of your work in respecting girls by emailing us: respectforgirls@gmail.com
Our Three Founding Circles:
WILPF Sierra Leone Long Line
Freetown and Bo, Sierra Leone
Long Line of Women Leaders for Racial Justice
Traprock Center for Peace and Justice
Greenfield, MA, USA
Gage Ambassadors
Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation
Syracuse, NY, USA
OUR MISSION:
We antidote the worldwide epidemic of disrespect and violation of girls. We help circles of dedicated people be part of the turnaround.
WHO WE ARE:
We began as three circles empowering each other as we crossed Sierra Leone to Western Massachusetts and Syracuse, New York in the US. Now we connect with other circles throughout Africa and the US and worldwide to create a tapestry of people calling NO MORE.
WHAT WE DO:
We create conversations that call people to wake up to the urgent need for change. We learned that witness of our stories, singing of songs that speak out boldly, and the creation of dramatic presentations effectively spotlight the serious and life-threatening problems of girls and women that are going unaddressed. We give each other tools and resources to galvanize schools and communities.
The Respect for Girls Project works to change the whole Wheel of Oppression.
In solidarity and in participation we stand with Black Lives Matter and LGBTQIA communities.
Solidarity Statement
Long Line, Western MA
Regular members:
Maya Baudrand
Norah Benkley
Iso Frazier
Carlie Kempf
Ella McDaniel
Jyn Rankin
Adult leader: Sarah Pirtle,
Peace Education Coordinator, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice
WILPF Sierra Leone
Regular members:
Rose Umu Bendu
Rosetta Hannah Bendu
Elizabeth Kaku
Jessica Adima Choloply Wilson
Grace Duba Mansary
Monica Victoria Bangura
Paul Kaku
Shadrack J Wright
Adult leaders: Kadie Sesay and Pastor Peter
Drama teacher: Foday Koroma
College mentor: Thomas Richmond Kamara
Gage Ambassadors, Syracuse, NY
Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation Girl Ambassadors for Human Rights
Program Mentors:
Alexis Ahn
Abby Kambhampaty
PeiLin Lu
Chadani Timsina
Chloe Tranquill
Adult leader: Vanessa Johnson, Program Director:
Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner is the Founder and Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation
The Women of WILPF
April 1915, WILPF -- the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom -- was founded by 1,136 women from warring and neutral nations during World War I to discuss how to end the war and ensure permanent peace.
Today 12,000 women peacebuilders are part of WILPF.
August 2018, WILPF branch in Sierra Leone launched by Kadie Sesay to engage women in sustainable economic activities that will alleviate poverty, to train women to advocate for their rights and to actively engage in opposing gender-based violence.
August 2018 Patricia Hynes and Kadie Sesay meet in Ghana at the 32nd WILPF Triennial International Congress held for the first time in Africa, under the theme Building a Feminist Peace Movement.
September 2018 Patricia Hynes, WILPF Board member and director of Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in Western MA, and Kadie Sesay, WILPF office founder and former schoolteacher, launch a collaboration. They start by working together to get 100 books about peace and justice into schools in Sierra Leone.
Youth Create the Respect for Girls Project
Summer 1994 to summer 2019 Sarah Pirtle, Traprock Peace Education Coordinator, led a feminist peace camp called Journey Camp.
July 2020 Sarah Pirtle starts A Long Line of Women Leaders for Racial Justice for teens who would have been at Journey Camp. During COVID, Long Line starts meeting weekly after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
December 2020 Teens from Kadie Sesay’s WILPF group in Sierra Leone and teens from Long Line begin weekly zoom meetings and together found The Respect for Girls Project.
January 2021 Teens from Vanessa Johnson’s group in Syracuse, NY called the Gage Ambassadors join as equal partners. Vanessa is Program Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation Girl Ambassadors for Human Right.
February 2021 the three groups actively create songs, launch a blogspot website, develop a skit to perform at schools in West Africa, produce T shirts, and plan further programs.