To develop the book, we worked with girls in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan, with groups of between 5 and 10 girls of different ages between 5 and 15 years old. The girls talked about their lives, their experiences, their friends… and through this exercise, we collected those stories. From them, we wrote 6 testimonies that included different elements from different girls. Obviously, using fictitious names and personal details, but all the experiences of violence or anecdotes and feelings that are collected in the book are all real shared by the girls.

Each story focuses on a different theme or type of violence, for example the role of girls at home, the denial of the right to go to school, the taboo related to menstruation, or sexual violence or even war.

Beyond the 6 stories, we mention a little what we do as JRS to fight against these realities and what the reader can do to help girls who suffer violence of all kinds.

Many of the girls that participated were amazing to work with… while still being children, the way in which they spoke, in which they claimed their rights , they denounced realities… it was enviable. There were some cases of girls who deserve to be given a microphone and taken to the United Nations to speak in front of the leaders who can really influence all of this!