Positively impacting lives one girl at a time

As South Africa honoured Heritage Day on 24 September this year, the GFPA celebrated and recognised  the cultural wealth of our nation in a global collaboration with the Women in Aviation International (WAI) and their annual Girl in Aviation day (GIAD). Since WAI's first annual international GIAD in 2015, the event has grown every year. In 2019 alone, GIAD met more than 20 000 attendees participating in 119 events in 18 countries. In 2020, WAI launched the Aviation for Girls App, and thousands of girls from nearly 60 countries participated throughout the year. You can access the app using this link Here .

We partnered with UNICEF South Africa , Airbus Foundation’s Little Engineer, the WAI Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) World Wide (WW), in the  USA, NACO Airport Consultancy and Engineering, and McAuley House  School to host the #GIAD21 in Johannesburg. We hosted 118 girls and boys (in smaller groups to adhere to COVID-19 protocols) for a fun morning of activities to celebrate GIAD and our South African heritage.

This year the Girls in Aviation Day #GIAD21 event was made up of a 3D Aerospace Design Workshop which took place over 5 weeks from 17 August 2021 to 16 September 2021. The course was presented to 118 girls and boys in Grade 4 and 5 at McAuley House School. Students were introduced to Tinker CAD, an easy-to-use and fun platform that allows young minds to learn about 3D design, practical uses for 3D design and Design Thinking. With the task to design for 250 settlers on Mars, ideation techniques were used to generate, develop, and test ideas. Students were able to create their own 3D space rockets, airplanes, and houses for easy 3D printing.

By empowering students with these techniques and skills, they can apply them in a wide range of circumstances such as developing solutions for challenges the communities they live in might be facing now or in the future. The designs submitted by the students demonstrated their understanding of the concepts and techniques that they had learned during the course.The students receive a certificate of completion from the Airbus Little Engineer Program provided by the Airbus Foundation, and they will also be eligible to participate in upcoming GFPA Foundation events .We closed this edition of GIAD21 Girls  on Friday 24th of September 2021 with exciting activities for both parents and the learners. The learners were introduced to a 3D printer , drone technology and participated in a paper plane challenge. Over 20 volunteers participated to bring this year’s #GIAD21 to its fun-filled conclusion. A big thank you to all our partner organisation including RPAS academy that exhibited at the event.