Rock Girl, on the Road
Across Africa, you hear about girls on the move. Usually, it is stories of girls being trafficked, fleeing war, escaping child marriage. Girls are rarely the storytellers.
Rock Girl is changing that. Rock Girl is back on the road.
From October 2 to 11, Rock Girl is taking 16 teenage girls on the second Rock Girl Road Trip, from Cape Town to the Kalahari Desert. Just as Rock Girl did in June 2015, these girls will interview girls and women along the way, documenting their lives through radio and photography. Over 1200 miles, they will be catapulted far from what they know as they sleep under the stars, track scorpions through the desert, and raft down rivers. They will learn how to read maps, pitch a tent, and read the night skies.
“These girls are modern day adventurers,” said India Baird, founder of Rock Girl, “and they are heroes, not only because they face gangsters each day, but because they care about other girls and can empathize with them about the common challenges they all face.” Upon their return, the girls will meet with the Minister of Justice, Michael Masutha, to brief him about what they have learned, sharing the stories of girls who have never been heard.
This is a Road Trip of sisterhood, girl-to-girl, across mountains, deserts, and across continents. Everywhere the first Road Trip went, Rock Girl invited girls to climb aboard the Road Trip bus and share their stories. “I had no idea that other girls are also afraid to walk to school”, reported Amahn Heuwel, one of the girls on the first trip, “or that some girls drop out because nearest high school is 50 kilometers away.” Rock Girl created a charter and helped girls in Port Elizabeth set up their own Rock Girl programme. They are using social media to stay connected, mentoring other girls they meet.
The Road Trip is also an opportunity for the travel and tourism industry to create sustainable models of development, especially in communities that are off the beaten track. The girls will travel in an overland vehicle sponsored by Africa Travel Co., meals are sponsored by Pick and Pay and various restaurants along the way, Cape Town Tourism is assisting with accommodation, and lodges like Tswalu Nature Reserve have invited the girls to track pangolins with their female researchers and dine together in the dunes. “Travel opens your eyes and allows you to return home with a new lens to look at your own community”, says Lindeka Qampi, one of the professional photographers who is mentoring the girls on the road.
Adv. Hishaam Mohammed, who unveiled a Safe Space bench in memory of Anene Booysens and two girls who were murdered in that area with Rock Girl in August 2015, will send the girls off on Friday, 2 October. “These girls are advocates for other girls across the country – they remind those of us in justice to ensure that the rights of girls and women are protected.”
Upon their return, Rock Girl will host a pop up photo exhibit on Bree Street in Cape Town, and train and mentor the next group of girls for the third road trip in early 2016.
Road trips are magical. You bond on the road. You see new places and horizons that represent infinite possibilities. This is a Road Trip of stories — stories that have the power to make lasting connections and to change the way the world sees girls from Africa. This is a Road Trip that Rock Girl wants all girls to join.
