Our inspiration arised from own reflections on the introduction to sex education we received. For me, it started in fourth grade. Recognizing the pivotal role of early understanding and empowerment, we embarked on a mission to equip elementary-aged children with essential knowledge on responding to sexual and domestic violence.
Safiya Speaks Up is a children’s book and an accompanying mentor’s guide. With the main message to ‘find your safe people’, we wanted to create a tool that could be used by young girls to help them learn how to respond to sexual and domestic violence in an easy way for them to comprehend. The mentor’s guide provides additional information, context, and resources so that adult mentors can help girls understand the story of Safiya Speaks Up.
As of November 2023, Safiya Speaks Up has reached 16000 girls through She's The First's Girl First Institute. In the same month, Safiya Speaks Up was brought to several schools in my home state, Penang, Malaysia. There, the book was read to students from grades 1 to 12, and had over 400 free copies distributed. Additionally, the English version of the book has received over 200 downloads. Currently, the book is available in English, Malay, Tagalog and Swahili and we aim to have it released in more languages in the near future. Current languages being translated include: Mandarin, French, Vietnamese and Spanish.
If you want to read and access Safiya Speaks Up, check it out at: https://shesthefirst.org/safiya-speaks-up
