A Valentine Gift to Help Underprivileged Girls
Underprivileged girls receive brand new dresses to wear for their Valentine’s Day dances and parties.
When most people are concerning themselves with what to give their special loved one on Valentines Day, there is an organization that is focused on helping lots of girls who don’t have the means to purchase new party clothes.
The founders of Us Trendy, an independent fashion ecommerce site, started Believe In Yourself to help young girls with self-esteem enhancement. Their belief is that many teenage girls are up against unobtainable social standards that are not just unaffordable, but often times unhealthy. In an effort to close this gap, The Believe In Yourself project is dedicated to the gainful advancement and empowerment of young women with a gift of confidence.
It is the belief of the organization that every young woman should feel confident regardless of her physical composition or financial circumstances. The Believe in Yourself project seeks to revolutionize and reverse some of the negative messages projected on to teenage girls. They hope to offer a positive influence and encourage all girls to believe in themselves.
On February 7 the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego Encanto Branch will be the site of an event that will assist underprivileged girls receive brand new dresses to wear for their Valentine’s Day dances and parties. Each girl who receives a dress is entered in to a program to monitor their progress towards improving their academic skills and/or pursuing an extracurricular interest such as music, dance and sports. Believe In Yourself also works to promote positive body image, reduce cyber bullying, and to inspire girls to believe in themselves and their dreams.
Sam Sisakhti, CEO of Us Trendy, has been running a retail company for the past 10 years. He said it was during an online contest they initiated that they realized the need for the Believe In Yourself program.
“We were facilitating a social media contest and invited customers to post photos of themselves wearing clothing purchased from the site and to hashtag us for a chance to have their photo shared. We then posted selected photos on our social media. As we began posting, we noticed an onslaught of negative comments. We had an employee begin to monitor the comments to weed out the cyber bullying, but eventually decided to stop the contest.”
This experience and others like it prompted Sisakhti to launch the non-profit called Believe in Yourself (www.believeinyourself.org) in January 2017. The organization combats cyber bullying and promotes a positive self-image. The organization also brings in mentors and speakers to talk to young people about cyber bullying.
At the same time, Sisakhti realized the enormous social pressure that many young girls feel to try to be hip and socially cool by wearing clothing that is seen as stylish. Many girls are unable to afford these fashions and can often feel ashamed socially. These observations inspired him to go to low-income areas and provide brand new dresses to girls in need. Dress donations are tied to the girls’ progress in achieving goals. Each girl who receives their first dress is based on their needs.
The Believe in Yourself organization is a national charity that will be making donations in 30 states in 2018. To learn more, visit www.believeinyourself.org.
Category: Business, Events, feature, Local News, National News
