A single London evening raised $1,977 for orphan education in Kenya — and Shirley Chen is just getting started
LONDON — The stained-glass windows of St Mary Bourne Street caught the late-June light as the audience settled into the pews. On stage, 16-year-old Shirley Chen adjusted her microphone, flanked by friends holding sheet music. In minutes, they would open the second charity concert of Chen’s young life — this time, on London soil.
Shirley performing at the concert
Six months earlier, she had stood in a very different church, in a very different city. Hong Kong. January. That first concert raised funds for the United Nations GirlUp project. This one would direct $1,977 to the Achungo Children’s Centre in Kenya — an organisation caring for orphans who might otherwise never sit in a classroom.
Audience watching the performance
Chen’s journey began with a number she could not shake: roughly 129 million girls out of school worldwide. She had grown up across Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and England, moving through one elite classroom after another. The gap felt unignorable.
Rather than wait for someone else to close that gap, she founded Girl Rise Global in 2025, registering it as a community club under the UN GirlUp network. Music was her first language; she decided it would also be her first tool.
Two concerts do not make a revolution. But they can make a pattern — and patterns, repeated, become habits. Chen’s habit is simple: see a gap, build a bridge, invite others to walk across it.
Charity concert in Hong Kong
About Girl Rise Global
Girls Rise Global is founded by then-15-year-old singer Shirley. It’s a London-based community organization under GirlUp, a United Nations Foundation initiative dedicated to advancing girls’ education, leadership, and empowerment in developing regions.
Website: https://www.girlriseglobal.org/
Instagram: @girl_rise_global
