By Kate Phillips, Staff Reporter

Seniors Sydney White and Anisa Williams have recently started a club called Girls Learn International. The club is supported by the Feminist Majority Foundation, which gives online seminars to girls who want to conduct a chapter of the club at their school.

While there are other girl-empowerment clubs at Conestoga, White explains the significance of the club, especially as part of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

“Our club is part of an international foundation, and it focuses mostly on education, and just getting the word out that, you know, we exist and that there is this gender space in education. I feel like a lot of people look at our clubs and think oh, girl clubs, but it’s a lot more than that,” White said.

White explains that education stretches beyond simply getting girls to learn.

“Education is not as effective when you’re older, so when you start it young then that teaches girls the skills they need . . . you’re also teaching them that they’re not any less than men. And, you know, a lot of the reason women stay at home is because they’re not fully educated – education opens a lot of opportunities,” White said.

The club does extend beyond education, however. White and Williams are planning clothing and toiletry drives for women’s shelters, and donating old phones to domestic violence victims that are no longer able to use their old phone number.

The Feminist Majority Foundation additionally provides a lot of help for more international affairs. The organization provides information on schools in Africa, as well as ideas as to how club members can get involved. For example, White explained the organization’s Period Movement, which aims to provide sanitary supplies for African girls that miss a week of school once a month because they do not have the supplies they need.

Williams thinks that beyond education and donations, one of the greatest ways to help is to recognize that women beyond our community experience prejudice and hardships.

“I think it’s just really important to be mindful and open, because we live in a place that’s really good about education and really good about getting support for women. But, you know, women make up 50% of the population, the cause is just so important,” Williams said.

Kate Phillips can be reached at [email protected]