It sounds like a safeguarding nightmare.
They promise confidentiality, nobody is allowed to mention to anyone what was said in the group, and they aren’t accountable to anybody.
They also include local volunteers, adults and teens, who could hold absolutely any beliefs about what constitutes healthy girlhood. This section is worrying:
“After last month’s “intense” session on periods, today’s is deliberately more fun and relaxed, with female mentors — a mix of mid-teen GJT graduates and adults from the local community — invited in to help the girls sew lavender eye pillows, paint stones or make a “memory book” in smaller breakout groups. The idea is to encourage the girls to connect with women outside their family “who get them, who are safe to talk to”, McCabe explains. “Girls need these women, so the incidental chatting is actually very important.””
An awful lot of damage could be caused before anyone even hears about it. -an obvious example could be older girls and women believing some girls are actually boys, and given the age disparity, the older girls’ or mums’ opinions are like to hold sway.
I think it’s a fantastic idea, but they urgently need people with safeguarding expertise to advise them.
It would be very interesting to see how they react to being told this; they should be delighted that people care about girls’ safety, but some organisations unfortunately double down that they are perfectly safe, thank you very much, and refuse to take safeguarding concerns seriously.