They were unstoppable! From the first ball to the final wicket, 68 young players in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, showed us what happens when everyone gets to play, lead and rise as equals. Daganiya ke Dhurandhar took home the trophy, beating Bhadi ke Blasters in an unforgettable RISE Premier League finale. But the real win? Girls leading as captains, boys showing up as teammates, and everyone bringing their A-game. They broke barriers, pushed boundaries and put confidence, teamwork, leadership and true partnership into action. This is what RISE is all about: taking learning beyond the classroom and putting skills into action! Until next season! Supported by @HP Foundation #RISEIndia #GirlRising #RisePremierLeague

Somewhere, a young person is finding the words for a story only they can tell. We’re thrilled to announce Girl Rising × @audible_com : Imagine Louder - Voices Rising, bringing storytelling to young people in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. Together, we’re creating space for young people to make sense of their experiences, question the world around them and imagine what’s possible, while finding the confidence to tell their stories in their own words. Every storyteller starts as a listener. We can’t wait to hear the stories they have to tell! #ImagineLouder #VoicesRising #GirlRising #Audible #Storytelling girlrising.org/audible

“…even though various cultures have tried to define women and put them in a suffocating box made of stereotypes and “traditions” based on their sex and gender, girls from every corner of the world will continue to think out innovative projects and have multiple dreams for the way they want to live their lives to the fullest.” Read all about Rafaela Proaño, a Girl Rising Fellow and past Girls Advisory Council member has to say about girls challenging norms through innovating projects that change their communities. #GirlTalk girlrising.org/post/keeping-…

Why a network? That was the question today at the Central America Donors Forum, in the session "Finding Abundance: How to Create, Join, and Fund Thematic Networks," a roundtable that had donors, network managers and member organisations in the same room. Our Senior Development Director, Cris Valderrama, was on the panel with Mauricio Táquez Durán (Global Fund for Children), Julianne Carlson (Fundación Luis von Ahn) and Travis Ward (Ward Foundation), who also moderated. Cris's answer: many grassroots organisations advancing the rights of girls and women are doing it in silos. They face the same challenges, often in the same communities, and rarely get the chance to work through them together. Through Ellas al Frente, a two-year program, we support women-led community-based organisations that work with girls. We not only provide funding and programmatic resources, but create the space for collaboration, mutual learning and collective action. and a safe space to learn girl-centered design: building programs together with the girls they serve. Seven organisations make up the current cohort. They train together through the year, meet in person at an annual convening open to other organisations in the region, and track how girls' agency changes over time. In a region with some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world, no organisation should have to do this work alone. Thank you to Mauricio, Julianne and Travis, and to everyone who joined us! #CADF2026 #EllasAlFrente

Meet Japnit Ahuja and Shaniya Khan, founders of Go Girls Organisation and graduates of our Girl-Centered Incubator 2026. She was only 13, when Japnit’s father showed her the source code of Facebook. This incident led to two things: Japnit's enduring love for coding and the start of Go Girls Organisation. With the mission of making digital literacy a guarantee for every girl, Go Girls conducts free workshops for girls to teach basic computer and skills and programming in their native Indian languages. Read their story. bit.ly/4ywCvTd

Meet Lizza Kawooya, founder of the Dwona Initiative and a graduate of our Girl-Centered Incubator 2026. Lizza Kawooya's brush with advocacy was accidental. A chance encounter with a selfless teacher who put her students' menstrual hygiene first and unabashed community support motivated her to take this momentum further and turn it into a movement. Thus, the Dwona Initiative was live and kicking. Fuelled by the vision of a world “... where no girl has to miss school because of her period,” Lizza Kawooya combined her passion with learnings from the fellowship to structure and strengthen her cause. Read her story : bit.ly/3VTxNR3

Meet @joan_kem , founder of the Gufasha Girls Foundation and a graduate of our Girl-Centered Incubator 2026. For Joan, freedom for girls to choose their future is a mission shaped by the loss of her best friend, Gufasha Maureen, who was forced out of school and into marriage at 13. Today, Joan carries Gufasha’s memory forward through a foundation working towards a world where no girl is forced into marriage before 18. Read her story. bit.ly/4i1BtZE

Meet Moraa Beryl, Founder of She Deserves to Soar and a graduate of our Girl-Centered Incubator 2026. Her childhood experiences led her to question what holds women back and what could set them free. She found the answers in systemic inequalities. Turning her knowledge about Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights into a mission to empower Kisumu’s girls and let them soar, she founded She Deserves to Soar. Through the Incubator, Moraa strengthened the core functional systems of her foundation. More importantly, in her words, she “... became more intentional about girl-centeredness.” Read her story. bit.ly/4i1Hc0z

Meet Tizaru Peace, founder of Hope Peace Gift of Life and a graduate of our Girl-Centered Incubator 2026. A problem has a solution. During the COVID-19 pandemic, though, Tizaru Peace came across a layered problem that required a layered approach. Not shaken by the complexity, though, she adopted a proactive role and set out to tackle it head-on. She established Hope Peace Gift of Life, an intervention that helps teenage mothers in Aura, Uganda, by equipping them with leadership and entrepreneurial skills. In her journey so far, she has reached 200 girls. Combining her learnings from the GCI, she has taken a major step towards girl-centric programmes. Read her story. bit.ly/47rjq95

Why? Why should she stay indoors? Why should she watch what she wears? Why should she plan how she’ll get home? Why should her world get smaller because of someone else’s violence? Why her? Why not the violence? #WomensSafety #GirlsMarch #DelhiUniversity #WomenStudents #Delhi #India

Meet Ausmita Sarkar, Co-founder of RANG Foundation India and the first graduate of our Girl-Centered Incubator 2026. What began with a vision for safer, more inclusive spaces for girls has grown into a movement reaching 400+ adolescent girls across West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Through the Incubator, Ausmita turned a peer collective into a registered nonprofit…putting girl-centred leadership at the heart of RANG’s work. Read her story. bit.ly/4xXvJol

Emerging leaders today are changemakers tomorrow. This philosophy is central to our Girl-Centered Incubator. Here, six young women leaders, across East Africa and South Asia, learn to turn their passion projects into purposeful foundations. How? Through a three-year fellowship, they receive training, funding, mentorship and a community of co-fellows. The result? They learn the ropes of building a governance system, complete with child protection policies, safeguarding manuals and theories of change. Back in their communities, they put their learning into practice, creating more opportunities for girls to co-design programmes that they participate in. Over the coming days, we’ll introduce you to our Girl-Centered Incubator’s 2026 graduates. Six leaders and their six unique stories. Stay tuned to know how these young minds are fostering a girl-centric world one programme at a time.

Society is like a scooter with two tyres. If you only take care of one, the whole journey slows down," says Divyansh Sahu, reminding us that girls and boys must move forward together for society to truly progress. When Divyansh first walked into a RISE classroom, he was curious. A year later, he's standing on stage reminding us that gender equality isn't just about girls, it's about all of us. This is what happens when boys are part of the conversation. Supported by @HP Foundation #RISEIndia #GirlRising #GenderEquality #BoysAsAllies