These girls certainly rock too.

Take a passion for girls’ education, rope in New York’s technology, music, and design communities, and add a dose of rock ‘n roll. That’s the foundation of GIRLS WHO ROCK, an annual concert benefitting girls’ schools in the developing world through education non-profit She’s the First. Created by Cynthia Hellen and Tammy Tibbetts in 2010, the concert series has already raised more than $23,000 to sponsor girls’ schooling in Tanzania and Uganda. Pretty rocking, if you ask us. After their last concert in May, we caught up with Hellen to see what drives GWR… besides their love for EcoSalon, of course.

Tell us the premise of GIRLS WHO ROCK.

Simply put, GWR is an annual concert produced by a team of remarkable women and girls, connecting the tech, music, and design communities and helping others sponsor girls’ education through She’s the First. We use technology like social media to creatively produce an experience for all those who connect with our message, follow our moves, and are simply curious about how they can collaborate with us. In the last two years, the concert has raised more than $23,000 to sponsor 32 girls in Tanzania and Uganda. In addition, ten American girls recently completed our GWR GivesBack mentorship program, working with 20 older volunteer role models to help produce the concert.

How did you think up the idea for the concert, and why the emphasis on girls education?

In 2009, I collaborated with Internet Week and Angel Wish, a nonprofit that helps children with HIV/AIDS. I took that as a case study of how social media can be used as a tool to reach the masses and have people join a cause. Then a friend sent me a link about Tammy and She’s the First. She’s the First was three months old and not yet a registered non-profit, but it had a simple message about how girls should be the first in their families to graduate from high school. The message connected with me, but I wondered about others with different cultural experiences and backgrounds. That was it right there – I knew I wanted to address this. I reached out to Tammy, and on our second encounter I shared with her the idea of a GIRLS WHO ROCK concert, and how it would bring attention to girls’ education using all these elements, and how her organization would benefit as well. Two months later, GIRLS WHO ROCK launched during Internet Week 2010.

How are you working toward social change?

As a woman, I am perplexed by how, as humans, we can say we “care” but yet are not willing to do enough for issues affecting us. As a social entrepreneur, I live with a constant reminder of these ongoing issues, and I am led by my curiosity and a desire to utilize my skills to create a simpler and more sustainable solution for the problems we have today, rather than be naive or turn my head.

It’s easy to say, “If it’s not affecting me directly, why should I care or connect myself beyond feeling sadness or pity?” Perhaps I don’t like “easy,” which led me to co-create GIRLS WHO ROCK. GWR is run as a social media production and utilizes the power of music to connect us in a much deeper sense to those who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to think, dream, and do big things in life – in this case, receive an education.

What is your background, and how did you decide to make this your life’s work?

My background is one of the things in my life I am most humbled about and if anything, grateful for, especially the education I was given as a child. I did not go down “the typical path” that is expected in Western culture. I was simply led by my curiosity to learn, and as I went, I built, and I am still doing so. Music was the first skill set I acquired, then theater, production, and entrepreneurship. College years were TV journalism, PR/social media, and now law and technology. But music and the arts are still my first loves, and those are the foundation of GWR.

Images: Cynthia Hellen, Marc Hall

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Editor’s Note: Thanks to you, we are feeling the love. To show our gratitude, we are profiling some of our most cherished readers who often stop by to see what we have cooking on the site. Please make them feel welcome by saying hello!

Award winning photographer, filmmaker and conservationist Beverly Joubert has been working in Africa with her husband Dereck for 30 years. Together they are explorers in residence at the National Geographic Society. The Jouberts spend years at a time living in remote bush camps in Botswana tracking animals to film and photograph. Their work focuses on big cats and their goal is to inspire others to take care of the planet. In 2008 they founded The Big Cats Initiative as an effort to stop the decline of big cats in Africa. Their latest film The Last Lions premiered this year in cinemas around the US.  with all profits from the film going to conservation. Two DVDs called Living With Big Cats and Big Cat Odyssey are to be released this year. To further educate and promote their mission the Jouberts recently expanded into conservation tourism through their company Great Plains Conservation.

Name: Beverly Joubert

Website: www.wildlifeconservationfilms.com

What do you like reading about on EcoSalon?
EcoSalon is making people so much more conscious. There are so many good articles. One jumped out at me about plastics in the ocean. It is really important to bring that to the table. And also the article about young Sarah Outen rowing across the oceans – each ocean is different and she will be learning the value of each one.

Tell me a little bit about your work?
We have been working in particular areas of Africa for 30 years and we have watched the areas transform, and not for the better. The animals have been diminishing. Ninety five percent of the cats have gone over a 50 year period – about the time we have been alive. Every film or book we make acts as a platform for big cats. Our last feature film ‘The Last Lions’ we named provocatively so we could start having the conversation.

What is your environmental philosophy?
Big cats are the most sexy species. But by protecting land for lions you are protecting it for everything else too. And by protecting wilderness areas we are protecting ourselves because most of these areas are the lungs of the world.

What inspires you to keep going?
The younger generation is really enthusiastic. It seems that they don’t just think as they have been taught but they are truly innovative. As explorers we have always had to think outside the box and be innovative. We are getting letters from tiny little kids saying how much they love lions. They truly understand and have ideas of how to help.

When are you happiest?
We found a baby elephant drowning in a man made mud pool and Dereck and I worked all night to try and save the little animal. We only intervene if it (the problem) is man made. It was intensely rewarding in the end. The mother cow came running down when the baby was out and she was fondling him. She didn’t even try and charge us. That was the most rewarding and beautiful moment I have ever had.

Image: Dereck and Beverly Joubert

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