Associação Mempodera is a Brazilian organization with a mission to promote gender equity through sport and education. It works to ensure that adolescents, especially Black and other underserved girls, have access to safe spaces for physical, emotional, and intellectual development. Since 2018, the organization has worked in low-income schools and communities offering wrestling and English classes integrated into a girls’ empowerment curriculum.
In Brazil, girls from underserved communities face multiple barriers to staying in school and reaching their full potential. Racial and gender inequality, domestic violence, period poverty, and the absence of safe developmental spaces contribute to school dropout, low self-esteem, and limited future opportunities. Brazil also faces high rates of femicide and gender-based violence, disproportionately impacting Black women and girls. Adolescence is a critical period in which the lack of access to information, psychosocial support, and safe spaces can deepen cycles of violence and exclusion.
With support from the Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund, Associação Mempodera will expand its programming at a new program site, serving the Quilombola community, who are descendants of Black people who escaped slavery. The project will offer regular wrestling and English classes twice per week, integrated with facilitated workshops on self-esteem, violence prevention, anti-racist education, teen pregnancy prevention, and the appreciation of their Quilombola cultural identity. Participants will actively contribute to planning and evaluating activities and community-based menstrual health initiatives will be implemented.
The project will directly reach approximately 50 adolescent girls and indirectly impact 200 additional community members. By integrating sports, education, and health in a historically marginalized territory, Associação Mempodera aims to reduce barriers that push girls out of school and strengthen their leadership, self-esteem, and autonomy.
To learn more about Associação Mempodera , please visit the organization’s website and social media pages:
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