‘STRAIGHT UP! FOR AFRICA’ WITH PAULA ABDUL

ACCF and global icon, Paula Abdul, have launched ‘Straight Up! for Africa’ using her extraordinary and iconic skill as a dancer and choreographer to unite and showcase cultures. This campaign seeks to empower the women and girls who will participate and to create greater awareness and possibilities for them and for wildlife and natural sustainability throughout the continent.

Rural Africa can be a difficult place for girls to grow up and thrive. Undue pressure is often put on girls to carry out domestic work such as fetching water and preparing meals, giving girls less time to dedicate to their studies as compared to boys. For girls who lack access to menstrual products, it is not uncommon for them to miss a week of school every month. The impact of these barriers results in fewer girls passing school as compared to boys.

ACCF supports programs that provide access to scholarships, entrepreneurial training, menstrual hygiene products, and mentoring for rural Tanzanian girls.  The participation of local African women and girls in empowerment events, community outreach, and conservation programs challenges gender stereotypes and discrimination and can therefore be a vehicle to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

When you donate to ‘Straight Up! For Africa’ campaign, you’re supporting programs like women and girls empowerment, education, and wildlife conservation in Africa.

Follow Paula Abdul, ACCF, and the #StraightUpForAfrica campaign on social media to see local African women and young people demonstrating their native dances. Paula will then choreograph an original dance that will encompass many of the unique and extraordinary steps and movements of those dances. While in Africa, Paula will meet schoolgirls and women and invite them to learn the new dance, which will all be filmed by ACCF. The videos will allow the world to see the unique and special forms of expression from countries and villages across Africa.