VSU Panhellenic Community Comes Together to Support Street Child US

VALDOSTA — The Valdosta State University Panhellenic community has raised $10,000 to provide training, mentorship, educational resources, and increased compensation for 25 female teachers in Cameroon through Circle of Sisterhood and Street Child US.
 
The goal is to equip these teachers with the skills needed to provide remedial, trauma-informed, and gender-responsive education to 2,000 displaced and traumatized girls, an effort to help restore access to learning and a sense of safety in a region where 71 percent of girls are illiterate. 
 
“We share Street Child US’s belief that education is one of the most powerful tools for protecting girls from violence, exploitation, and lifelong poverty,” said Ginny Carroll, founder and executive director of Circle of Sisterhood Foundation, the VSU Panhellenic community’s collective philanthropy.
 
Circle of Sisterhood Foundation is a United States-based charity that leverages the collective influence of sorority women to raise financial resources for entities around the world that remove barriers to education for girls and women facing poverty and oppression worldwide.
 
Street Child US is among dozens of organizations supported by Circle of Sisterhood.
 
“As one of the most educated communities in the world, sorority women are answering the call to help end the global crisis in girls’ education. Thanks to this generous contribution from the VSU Panhellenic community, we can help further Street Child US’s work in a significant way.”
 
VSU’s College Panhellenic Council is comprised of six sororities — Alpha Delta Pi (Delta Theta chapter), Alpha Sigma Alpha (Theta Mu chapter), Chi Omega (Psi Lambda chapter), Kappa Delta (Gamma Mu chapter), Phi Mu (Kappa Beta chapter), and Zeta Tau Alpha (Eta Iota chapter).
 
The sorority women from each of these chapters came together throughout the past year to raise funds through a variety of creative and community-focused initiatives, from percentage nights at local restaurants and small tabling activities to their annual Panhellenic Showcase dance competition. Their commitment to uniting around a shared purpose reflects the power of collaboration and sisterhood at VSU.
 
“I am incredibly proud of the women in our Panhellenic community for coming together to make a meaningful difference through sisterhood and service,” said Abby Beam, manager of fraternity and sorority life with VSU’s Office of Student Life. “This experience has strengthened their leadership skills and shown them the impact they can make when they work together, and it has connected their efforts to something much bigger than themselves. I hope our students carry this experience with them as they continue to lead, serve, and recognize the power they have to create change in their communities and beyond.”
 
Street Child US has designed a two-year program called Armed Conflict and Crisis: Enabling Schooling Sustainably (ACCESS), an approach that positions teachers as educators, safe adults for girls, and linchpins of the recovery of the public school system. 
 
ACCESS delivers an intensive, gender-responsive teacher training and mentoring program designed specifically for conflict-affected contexts focusing on trauma-informed and psychosocially supportive teaching practices; child safeguarding, protection, and referral mechanisms; gender-responsive pedagogy and classroom management; and accelerated foundational literacy and numeracy instruction for girls whose learning has been disrupted or non-existent.
 
VSU’s Panhellenic community looks forward to continuing its tradition of supporting Circle of Sisterhood and the values of sisterhood, education, and service.
 
On the Web:
https://www.valdosta.edu/student/student-life/greek-life/
https://circleofsisterhood.org/
https://streetchildusa.org/