Founded in 2013, Project Soar is a Moroccan charitable association with a mission to empower adolescent girls to be the leaders of today and tomorrow. Since its founding, it has served more than 6,500 girls in 138 locations across Morocco. The organization envisions a world in which every girl knows her value, voice, body, rights and path. To that end, Project Soar supports girls through its rights-based workshops which focus on physical and mental health, education, child marriage prevention, and life skills. Additionally, the organization leads the BIGGER Movement, a coalition of NGOs working to end child marriage in Morocco.
Gender inequality and harmful norms remain persistent in Morocco. The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Gender Gap report ranks Morocco as 134th out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity across economic, political, educational, and health-related metrics. Furthermore, gender-based violence is an ongoing challenge: a 2019 survey by the Moroccan High Commission for Planning found that 71 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 had been subjected to violence of some form. For girls living in rural areas of Morocco, these challenges are amplified. Due to poverty and local norms, girls are often pressured to marry underage and discouraged from attending school. For those in school, their families are often unable to afford menstrual products and taboos relating to menstruation create shame, leading girls to miss classes and increasing their risk of dropping out completely. Consequently, adolescent girls often do not have the knowledge nor the tools to advocate for themselves and their needs, limiting their agency and decision-making power regarding their futures.
The Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund will support Project Soar’s holistic 25 workshop empowerment curriculum, which will focus on building girls’ agency, self-confidence and leadership skills, as well as providing girls with the tools they need to care for their physical and mental health. The organization will focus on supporting girls between the ages of 13 and 18 who are living in underserved communities where families typically experience extreme poverty. As a result, these girls are highly vulnerable to early marriages and pregnancies. Project Soar will implement empowerment workshops in 12 locations across eight regions of Morocco, providing education on topics such as menstrual health, gender-based violence, self-care, and more. In addition to workshops, it will supply its own Soar-Hurya menstrual health kits, lead after-school clubs to provide girls a safe space to practice the skills they have learned, and hold community dialogues to find solutions to the most pressing issues affecting adolescent girls in Morocco.
Through its multi-faceted approach, Project Soar will address the range of barriers which impact girls’ ability to learn and gain a quality education. The organization hopes to provide girls’ with the tools they need to stay healthy, free from violence, and safe from child marriages, helping develop their self-confidence and ability to define their own life’s path. Ultimately, Project Soar seeks to raise awareness and shift harmful social norms, placing girls at the center of conversations that impact their futures.
To learn more about Project Soar, please visit the organization’s website and social media pages:
See more projects: Africa, Child Marriage, Leadership & Life Skills Development, Menstrual Health