This woman needs your votes to win a grant so girls in Africa can have access to education

IDAHO FALLS – Payton McGriff attended the University of Idaho in hopes of pursuing a career in marketing analytics, but a book she read during her sophomore year changed her life and inspired her to change course.

The 30-year-old Idaho Falls native is the founder of Style Her Empowered — known as SHE — a nonprofit that empowers girls and women through education and employment. Since its launch in 2017, it’s provided 8,095 education sponsorships for girls in Togo, Africa, who otherwise wouldn’t have access to these opportunities.

McGriff is one of five people nationwide in the running for CNN’s Hero of the Year award. If she wins, she’ll receive $100,000 in grants to support her cause.

To win, she needs to secure the most votes. Each person can vote for McGriff up to 10 times a day until Dec. 3. She’s asking for your support.

“CNN will be releasing a $50,000 match donation on Dec. 3 for Giving Tuesday. We’ll be doing a Giving Tuesday campaign around that, but our primary focus is the voting process,” McGriff tells EastIdahoNews.com.

SHE is currently helping 2,000 girls in the West African nation with uniforms, scholarships and year-round support.

It’s funded entirely by donations and grants.

It’s a project McGriff started during her senior year of college after reading a book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn called “Half the Sky.” It examines the oppression of women in developing countries.

She was shocked to learn that 129 million girls worldwide are not enrolled in school, and that providing a well-tailored school uniform, which are mandated in many countries, is one of the most cost-effective ways to keep girls across the globe in school.

“That tiny sentiment stuck with me for a couple years before I started exploring this nonprofit idea,” says McGriff. “It gave me a starting place.”

One of McGriff’s professors, Romuald Afatchao, was from Togo and he became one of her mentors when she developed her school uniform idea for her senior class project.

During a trip to Togo early on, she met Elolo, a young woman who started her chores at 3:30 a.m. so she could attend school and did homework by streetlight at night since her house had no electricity. Her family’s financial struggles meant she eventually had to quit school so her brothers could continue.

“It made all of the stories that you read in the book so real,” McGriff told CNN. “Talent and resilience and resourcefulness is so equally distributed worldwide, but opportunity is not.”

“Coming from small town Idaho and now having this more global perspective made me realize how fortunate I am,” McGriff added in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com. “I felt really drawn to creating or redistributing opportunities.”

McGriff returned home, pitched her education project at entrepreneurship competitions, won $35,000 in seed money, and eventually turned down her dream job to bring her vision to life. She graduated in May 2017 and returned to Togo.

Today, there are a team of 38 employees from Togo who are leading the effort. Having local leadership was the goal from the beginning, McGriff says, because they understand “the challenges the girls face” and “what the solution should look like.”

Among the local leaders is Elolo.

“She was one of our first hires. We hired our program administrator right when I flew back to Togo. Elolo is the one who helped recruit students our first year,” says McGriff.

Though McGriff once had her sights on a different career path, she says this is now her “dream job” and she couldn’t imagine doing anything else with her life.

While the effort is currently focused in Togo exclusively, McGriff says doors are opening and they’re looking at opportunities to provide similar resources for women in other countries.

McGriff says winning the Hero of the Year award would allow them to expand their efforts even further in Togo.

“If we’re able to … unlock that grant, it would allow us to build our own employment and education center in Togo. For many years, we’ve been renting a small office space and trying to make do. But we just keep outgrowing our space,” says McGriff.

To vote for McGriff, click here. You can also make a donation here.