GGM Reporters Speak Out About Vaccine Accessibility — CORONA #IRL

GLOBAL GIRL MEDIA LAUNCHES YOUTH VIDEO SERIES: CORONA #IRL

16 Stories from 8 countries

from young women, ages 15-22, sharing their lives during Covid-19

GlobalGirl Media has mobilized its reporter alumna base to produce a video series documenting COVID-19 history from a young woman/girl’s point of view, CORONA #IRL (In Real Life.) The full impact of these times cannot be documented without the perspective of our youth, especially those from under-reported populations and regions such as South Africa, Kosovo, refugee camps, homeless shelters, and inner-city Chicago. This unprecedented series tells the stories of how the girls, their families, friends, and communities are dealing with the pandemic, “social distancing,” and the societal inequalities highlighted during the Covid-19 crisis.

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“Working with these young women over the last 6 weeks as they’ve gone from pitching their stories, to filming, shaping and editing their stories, all while facing the acute challenges they endure under the COVID-19 pandemic has been a powerful experience,” says Amie Williams, co-founder of GlobalGirl Media. “It is part counseling, part mentoring and a large part, for me, understanding the deep and profound ways these girls’ lives are being affected,” she continues.

The stories include a non-functioning domestic violence hotline in South Africa, a refugee forced to move from her camp in Berlin, the collapse of the Kosovo government in the midst of the pandemic, a single teen-age Mom in Chicago trying to hold it together, a Guatemalan girl dealing with her Grandmother’s death, and an East Los Angeles young woman interviewing the homeless and incarcerated. All the reports are raw, heartfelt, vulnerable and reflect the very real ways the girls are living and responding to the crisis. Keeping within the safety constraints of social distancing, the young women have used their phones and basic equipment to document the hope, friendships, creativity, challenges and accomplishments, from their homes, in refugee camps, inner cities, rural areas and suburbia.

As the news from mainstream media continues its important coverage of the epidemic, the girls’ perspectives will offer an intimate and personal look at the effects this worldwide state of emergency has had on youth. For some girls, being quarantined at home is a time to binge watch movies and have fun with friends on TikTok. But for most girls around the world, they are serving on the frontlines of protecting themselves and their families from economic and health disaster.

The GlobalGirl Media series, Corona IRL, will highlight the challenges, successes, new ideas, and hopes of a generation that is proving itself vital in leading the change we want to see in the world.