By Tracey Khan
THE Guyanese Girls Rock Foundation (GGRF) is a global empowerment movement created to celebrate Guyanese women and girls who are leaders and accomplished achievers.
This all-women space gives girls from a small country like Guyana even more hope and drive that they too can achieve what was once seen as unattainable, as it is demonstrated by females from similar backgrounds and circumstances defying the odds and achieving national and international recognition.

The platform was created by New York-based Guyanese Cloyette Harris-Stoute as a blog in 2012 to showcase the progress that Guyanese girls of birth and descent are making around the world, but it quickly grew and is now looked at as the premier website for all things ‘Guyanese Girl’.

For the second year, the Guyanese Girls Rock Foundation Inc will honour several women from the Guyanese community with its ‘Women of Influence’ awards during its annual Honours & Awards Luncheon. The organisation is raising funds to support its Young Women’s Leadership Academy and will also award scholarships to two college-bound participants of the programme.

“So once the young women get to the 12th grade, the graduate out of that programme and they are eligible to apply for one of two scholarships: a Merrick scholarship and a technology scholarship for US$1,000 each; so we will be giving away those scholarships as well at the event,” Harris-Stoute said.

In January 2019, GGRF welcomed the second class of students to its Young Women Leadership Academy; a 12-week Saturday programme for high school girls that focuses on three key areas: building identity, developing self-confidence and developing leadership skills.

“This event is to celebrate the accomplishment of Guyanese and we are everywhere and we have a large population in Queens, in the diaspora in general and we don’t just celebrate the women in New Yor, but wherever they are doing great things,” Harris-Stoute told the Pepperpot Magazine.

This elegant red-carpet affair will take place in the Venetian Room at Antun’s of Queens Village, New York and the doors will be opened at 12:00hrs; this will be followed by the awards ceremony at 13:00 hrs. Attendees will be treated to a beautiful buffet lunch and entertainment and tickets cost US$75 and must be bought in advance. Persons can contact the foundation on guyanesegirlsrock.org, Facebook or Instagram @gtgirlsrock @guaynesegirlsrock for more information on the event.

“I am a proud Guyanese woman and I just feel like we need to celebrate our own, because other cultures do it; just shine the spotlight on the positives, because there are so many misconceptions on Guyana and Guyanese people as a whole, so I just want people to see some of the talents that we have, that we are bringing to the diaspora in our women…we have some brilliant, talented women and we want to show them that we see you and we appreciate you,” she said.

She also explained that they are two different entities under one umbrella, Guyanese Girls Rock. com the empowerment platform and Guyanese Girls Roc.org, which is the non-profit platform and both need the support of Guyanese all over the world.

“You can support us by making a donation, you can volunteer, you can come to our leadership programme if you’re a woman in a position of leadership and you want to give back, you want to share your story, you want to teach a class or do a workshop; please reach out and let us know and we will be happy to have you.”