At Days For Girls, we firmly believe that transformative change starts from within.
In order to tear down systemic racism, we must first listen and reflect on our own biases – and then take action. It isn’t enough to hope for change; instead, we must act directly and deliberately. We are committed to this work, and to advancing our core values of equity, diversity, local leadership, and justice.
We believe that #BlackLivesMatter.
Some are seeing this important message as an attack on the value of all lives (#alllivesmatter). Indeed, it is certain that all lives matter. But for far too long, our Black sisters and brothers have faced a unique struggle with deep discrimination, institutionalized racism, and violence in the U.S. and around the world. Silence will not reverse the systemic nature of this problem. Change will never come unless we acknowledge – and strive to rectify – their suffering and oppression.
All lives cannot matter until Black lives do.
As such, we pledge to take the following steps toward enhanced diversity, inclusion, and equity within our organization and within ourselves. At DfG we commit to:
- Speaking up publicly about our stand for racial justice.
- Continually hiring and promoting local leaders in countries where we work, and finding new ways to amplify their voices on all our global platforms.
- Accelerating our recruitment of diverse talent, and diversifying representation at all levels of Days for Girls leadership — including our senior leadership team, Board of Directors, and other job openings.
- Continuing the listening, learning, and self-educating process, so that we can better recognize our own unconscious biases (especially as it relates to racism) and continue to grow.
We celebrate the value of diversity. We recognize that when anyone in the world faces prejudice and inequity, we are all weaker for it. The last thing we need is for good people to stand quietly by. We are committed to examining where we can do better and doing the work to make it happen. With this, a recent poem comes to mind:
What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?
What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?
A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw–
That it finally forces us to grow.
A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us
From our ignorant slumber.
A year we finally accept the need for change.
Declare change. Work for change. Become the change.
A year we finally band together, instead of
Pushing each other further apart.
2020 isn’t cancelled, but rather
The most important year of them all.
– leslie dwight
