Hear Her Voice, COVID-19 Stories: Girls' Lives Under Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit women and girls hard. Beyond the threat of the virus itself, they face a heightened risk of gender based violence, economic stress and also a lack of access to education, healthcare and sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services.

Yet, despite the immense coverage of the pandemic, there is a real lack of data and understanding about girls’ experiences of lives under lockdown. Rarely do we hear about girls’ lives from the perspective of girls themselves. This has consequences. We know that adolescent girls are one of the hardest groups to reach in societies. Coupled with this, there is a risk that hard-won gains for girls slip backwards as a result of the pandemic.

Without the inclusion of girls’ perspectives, solutions to support them during this crisis - both short and longer term - won’t be as effective as they could be. For the past two months Girl Effect has been listening to girls’ experiences, challenges and needs in response to Covid-19.

We’ve launched ‘Hear Her Voice’: a unique research project giving 25 girls in five countries (Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Nigeria and the U.S) a platform to report on their experiences of life in lockdown – in their own voice – via digital diaries.

The project aims to reach policymakers, programs professionals and researchers working to support adolescent girls. We would also love for girls to access the project and feel as though they are accessing a 'community of girls'. We have not specified reach figures, but we would like to see a hit rate on our microsite increase and also host an event with other researchers and projects doing similar things.