October 11st is the International Day of the Girl Child, whose theme of this year is “Girls’ Vision for the Future”.
This theme expresses both the need for urgent action and a hope that persists (and the enduring hope that comes from the power of girls’ voices and their vision of the future.). driven by the power of girls’ voices and their vision for the future.
Today’s generation of girls is disproportionately affected by global crises related to climate, conflict, poverty and the rollback of hard-won gains in human rights and gender equality. Too many girls are still denied, restricting their choices and their futures.
Gender equality and women’s empowerment are an integral part of each of the 17 goals. Only by ensuring the rights of women and girls in all goals will we achieve justice and inclusion, economies that work for all, and sustaining our shared environment, now and for future generations.
Some UN figures

  • Nearly one in five girls still do not complete lower secondary education and nearly four in ten girls do not complete upper secondary education.
  • About 90% of teenage girls and young women do not use the internet in low-income countries, while their male peers are twice as likely to be online.
  • Worldwide, girls aged between 5 and 14 spend 160 million more hours each day than boys of the same age on unpaid care and domestic work.

The ENGIE Foundation is convinced that the role and future of girls, future women, are essential to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The ENGIE Foundation pays particular attention to the projects that have an impact on the lives of young girls and that empower gender diversity through:

  • Access to education
  • fight against gender unfair prejudice


The ENGIE Foundation wants to offer young girls a chance.

Focus on 3 projects

Raising awareness of ecology among young girls in Cambodia with Toutes à l'Ecole

Created in 2005 by journalist Tina Kieffer, the association Toutes à l’école is committed to providing education to 1700 disadvantaged girls in Cambodia.

Its objective: to provide them with a high-level education so that they become free and educated women, capable of transmitting the best to the next generation and playing a useful role for their country in in a world more respectful of environment.

• Every year, 100 new girls aged 5 to 6 from poverty-sticken backgrounds enter the kindergarten of the Happy Chandara campus, in Phnom Penh’s suburb of Prek Thmey.

They will have the opportunity to follow a high-quality school curriculum up to the baccalaureate in Khmer, English and French.

Toutes à l’école then accompanies the young baccalaureate students graduates of Happy Chandara (each year 100% success rate of baccalaureate) in their higher education by hosting them in its two student hostels in Phnom Penh, where they build an independent adult life in a secured environment.

The ENGIE Foundation supports the Green Team, the school’s ecological commitment.

Progressively the more important these Happy Chandara’s green projects become, the need for a team entirely dedicated to their implementation became obvious). This team was gradually formed around an agronomy engineer and a green project manager, quickly joined by two former students of the campus (both graduated of the Royal University of Agriculture of Cambodia) and regularly reinforced by interns from major engineering schools.

In addition to having become the campus innovation laboratory, this team is leading a professional integration project : the gardeners are fathers from the village community.

All of these driving forces enabled the Happy Chandara campus to receive to be awarded an eco-certification from the Cambodian Ministry of Environment in November 2023. This distinction is based on 15 strict environmental criteria (use of green energy, ecological materials, etc.) that the Green Team has succeeded in perpetuating in the daily life of the campus.

In parallel with the creation of a responsible campus, the Green Team is also in charge of the development of an agroecology to supply the school’s canteens. This agroecology has educational applications based on innovative production projects

Workshops to raise awareness of the ecological transition

The objective: to raise the awareness of the 1,300 students and the community.

The Ouverture Sur le Monde courses allow students to explore current global issues with 400 hours of permaculture classes for all grade levels to teach students about pesticide-free farming and Climate Fresco workshops now mandatory for all campus staff.

Green Community Project

The aim is to encourage sustainable practices and strengthen everyone’s commitment to protecting our planet.

• Waste sorting course to learn good practices regarding recycling.
• Exchanges of food baskets for bags of plastic waste brought back by the students’ families.
• Educational tour of the Gomi recycling plant, near Phnom Penh, to better understand the recycling process.
• Organized an awareness day on campus, with the aim of eliminating single-use plastics and promoting the 5 “Rs”: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse and Give Back to the Earth.

This day was enriched by various activities:
• a waste collection in partnership with the NGO One Earth One Ocean;
• a workshop led by Gomi Recycle and the NGO Only One Planet;
• Educational games to raise awareness of the negative impacts of plastics on the environment.

Tola CHHORN, student at the Ecole des Mines

The ENGIE Foundation has enabled Tola CHHORN to keep studying in France thanks to a scholarship.

After being graduated top of her third year at the Cambodia Institute of Technology, Tola CHHORN started his Master 2 at the Ecole des Mines d’Alès in September 2023.

Thola has integrated very well and is continuing her studies to become a mining engineer.

She is housed in the Students’ House, which allowed her to meet people and evolve in an enriching and safe working environment.

Tola has validated her 2 semesters with very good results and she is currently doing an internship in a geotechnical design office as an assistant engineer

Discover Tola’s portrait

Energy to Strengthen the Education of 600 Girls at Likuni Girls' Secondary School, Malawi

ENGIE employees volunteering from ENERGY ASSISTANCE Belgium have helped to improve the educational landscape of 600 girls at the Girls’ Secondary School in Likuni, Malawi, through the installation of solar panels and batteries.

Malawi faces frequent power outages that disrupt the learning process. Solar energy is a reliable source of energy that not only lights classrooms, but also contributes to the well-being of our planet.

Lighting the way to education:

The Likuni Girls’ Secondary School, a boarding school near Lilongwe, is home to 600 girls. The solar system not only makes it possible to light classrooms after dark (around 5 p.m. due to the latitude), but also to power 30 computers, thus providing access to modern teaching tools. We strongly believe that every girl deserves a chance at a bright future, and that access to education is key.

Although the school is connected to the local grid (ESCOM), persistent power outages led to the installation of 22 photovoltaic panels and 4 lithium batteries as a backup. The panels were placed on the roof of the school building, a restored technical room now houses the solar control equipment, electrical boxes and batteries. The solar system (nearly 10kWp with a storage capacity of 19.2kWh) ensures a continuous power supply in the classrooms, the computer room and in the administrative block during outages.

Towards sustainability and ecological friendliness:

Beyond the classrooms and the administrative block, the dormitories, the kitchens, etc. are still not connected. A feasibility study is underway to supply the kitchen with biogas. This would make it possible to prepare daily meals without the need for electricity or firewood, and to provide biofertilizer for the vegetable garden, thus offering an environmentally friendly solution. This approach aims to fight against deforestation and improve the self-sufficiency of the school.

Promoting biodiversity for a sustainable future:

Beyond the classrooms and the administrative block, the dormitories, the kitchens, etc. are still not connected. A feasibility study is underway to supply the kitchen with biogas. This would make it possible to prepare daily meals without the need for electricity or firewood, and to provide biofertilizer for the vegetable garden, thus offering an environmentally a respectful solution to environment. This approach aims to fight against deforestation and improve the self-sufficiency of the school.

Leadership for young college girls in South Africa with Valued Citizen

For 20 years, the ENGIE Foundation has been one of the long-standing partners of the NGO Valued Ctizens Initiative.
Valued Citizens is an association that aims to inspire individuals to become responsible citizens, determined to lead their lives by engaging in democracy and the South African economy.
Since 2009, the ENGIE Foundation has been supporting the NGO on the iNSIRE program.This iNSPIRE program purposes to address the problem of gender inequality and poverty in communities by developing and challenging girls’ perception of themselves, promoting their emotional well-being and helping them become young leaders in their communities by becoming the positive role models that young people expect.

Impact 2023: 171 “Valued Citizens” adolescent girls followed the Leadership trainings and set up their real, medium-scale citizen project within their school community, which had a direct impact on 3197 students involved in the realization of their project and an indirect impact on 9414 middle-school students.