Doer of the Month: Foundation for Girls

The world is changed by teachers. Not only those in the classroom but those willing to patiently explain and guide others towards their own success.

First-generation immigrants from India, Anu and Sailesh Mantha wanted to be good teachers for their two daughters Shreya and Sahana. They began when the girls were young emphasizing what they believed were the four keys to career success for women: financial savvy, digitally capable, career confident, and socially connected.

Both Anu and Sailesh had used those four pillars to become successful in their own careers in the U.S., yet they knew their daughters were living a very different life from the one they grew up in India. “It was a little bit of a bubble,” Anu admitted about their nice home, banking jobs and the girls’ private school education. “We needed to show them life in Charlotte outside downtown and SouthPark.”

So Anu and Sailesh made sure to take their girls to the many zip codes that existed outside their South Charlotte home. Digging a little deeper, Shreya and Sahana began volunteering at a nonprofit that served young women escaping sex trafficking Instead of hanging out with their friends on Friday nights, Shreya and Sahana began having very different conversations with teens who had no support systems as they bounced through the foster care and homeless service sector.

Shreya and Sahana began to realize how their parents provided a safe haven of not only financial but emotional support. Although she was only in eighth grade, Shreya began to wonder, “Why shouldn’t all these young girls have this kind of support and education?”

Shreya and Sahana had the idea of creating workshops for teens and with the help of their mom, they reached out to local nonprofits. But only the executive director of The Relatives, Curtis Joe, was willing to sit down with the young girls to hear their idea and brainstorm. 

Shreya and Sahana explained how they believed young girls from marginalized stuations, in the foster care system and those experiencing homelessness were unprepared—economically, educationally and emotionally—to successfully support themselves. The ones in the trafficking shelter knew only one way to make money—selling themselves. Like their parents had taught them, Shreya and Sahana knew these girls needed to become financial savvy, digitally capable, career confident and socially connected to change their path. Curtis Joe, who had grown up in the foster care, encouraged the girls to develop a program to offer in partnership with the Relatives. Yes, Shreya was 14 and Sahana was 9 at the time.

When asked how she had the courage to start something at such a young age Shreya said with a smile, “How could we not? I think we were so young that we really didn’t think about someone saying ‘no.’”

That was the beginning of what Shreya and Sahana now call their “passion project”: Foundation For Girls. Although it is a nonprofit, the sisters like to call it a “social change organization with an entrepreneurial mindset.”  When they created FFG in December of 2014, their made their motto from Sir Arthur Lewis, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize Economic Science, who said, “The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge.” 

Shreya and Sahana began with two other volunteers and the support of their parent providing programs at The Relatives and MYM serving young adults 16-24.  From there it has grown to 75 coaches working with over 300 women and 100 children in a given year. Young woman can enter the program and stay anywhere from 9-48 months.

“For many of our young girls, we are the only constant in their live,” Anu said. “FFG provides the continuity and community they have been missing to feel supported in their lives.”

Along with financial stability and the four pillars, FFG strives to teach values like trust, respect, leadership and a collaborative mindset. The Pulse of FFG beats on these building blocks

            Consistent Community

            Conscious Collaboration

            Crucial Capabilities

In 2019, FFG changed the way it delivered programming because Shreya had been accepted to Stanford so they decided to offer the monthly group workshops and some individual coaching virtually.

The virtual programming allowed Shreya to coach on weekends from California and it also allowed coaches from all over the country to be involved—in California, Colorado, Texas, and Florida. FFG Coaches come from all professional sectors and become a steady presence for marginalized women to learn how becoming financially and digitally astute helping facilitate a change in the trajectory of their lives forever. 

“We had no idea how that virtual programming decision would prepare us for 2020!” Anu said.

FFG also helps its participants with material needs like “Care Packs” to support the young women.  In 2020 alone, they provided 207 Baby Bags with clothes, books diapers and toys; 339 Mommy Bags with clothes, shoes, gift cards and even birthday presents; 3609 Feminine Hygiene packs with monthly product for women, 639 Covid packs with wipes and sanitizers and 16,000 masks. FFG even provided rental assistance to six families.

Today, FFG is serving young women and their children in North Carolina and South Carolina with a vision for replication elsewhere. Anu estimates over 1800 women and children have been impacted .Women like Savannah who was first served by FFG when she was 14-years-old with a one-week old and who is now entering nursing school at UNC Charlotte. 

The ripple grows as well. For every life touched, FFG estimates five others are impacted. “The girls tell us how they teach lessons learned to others,” Anu says. They also refer other participants to join the program.

Started with less than $500 in seed funding, FFG has gained grants from partners like Wells Fargo and Foundation for the Carolinas. There are still no paid employees at FFG and all the coaches invest “heart” equity in this social change company looking to create change across generations. Shreya and Sahana say “We are rooted in the idea of giving girls what our parents gave us.”

Shreya, Sahana, and the FFG Team are focused on growing FFG for long-term scalable impact that will create multi-generational change.

The girls they teach will teach their children and their children. The world is changed by teachers.

To learn more about Foundation for Girls visit www.foundationforgirls.org

—Kathy

Kathy Izard is an award-winning author and speaker who helped bring transformation to Charlotte in homelessness, housing and mental health. Her memoir The Hundred Story Home has been featured on NPR as well as the Today Show inspiring people to be changemakers in their communities.  www.kathyizard.com.