Privacy Policy

1About Gals Voices

Girls Achieving Learning & Success Voices (Gals Voices) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering girls and women through personal growth, mentorship, leadership development, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), digital literacy and holistic development. We operate this website to share information about our mission, programmes, events, opportunities and ways to get involved.

This policy applies to personal information collected through this website and related communication channels.

2Information We Collect

We aim to collect only the information we genuinely need. The public contact form and the Get Involved forms (volunteering, mentoring, partnerships, offers of support and joining the community) each become active only once a monitored destination, restricted access and a retention period are configured. Where a form is enabled, it collects the following information when you choose to send an enquiry:

• Your name, email address, enquiry type, optional subject and message.
• For Get Involved forms, the details relevant to that option — for example your area of expertise and experience (mentoring), your organisation and proposed collaboration (partnerships), the type of support you are offering, or your availability and interests.
• A record that you accepted the privacy-use consent when you submitted the enquiry.
• Basic request information processed by the website infrastructure to provide and protect the service.

Each form includes a hidden anti-spam field. It is not intended to collect personal information and is not saved with an enquiry. We do not ask for sensitive personal information, financial details or passwords through general website forms. Please do not include such information in a message to us. Newsletter subscription is not collected through these forms.

3How We Use Information

We use the information you provide to:

• Respond to enquiries and requests.
• Keep a restricted-access record of an enquiry until its configured deletion date.
• Improve our website, content and services.
• Meet our legal, safeguarding and accountability obligations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not automatically subscribe you to the newsletter simply because you contacted us.

4Legal Basis and Consent

Where required by applicable law, we rely on your consent, our legitimate interest in running the organisation, or our need to comply with legal obligations. You may withdraw consent for newsletter communications at any time using the unsubscribe option or by contacting us.

5How We Share Information

We may share information with trusted service providers who help us operate the website and communicate with you, such as email delivery and hosting providers. These providers are expected to handle information securely and only for the purposes we specify.

We may also disclose information where we are required to do so by law, or where it is necessary to protect someone from harm. Safeguarding concerns are handled through a restricted process rather than ordinary enquiries.

6Cookies and Similar Technologies

The website may use essential cookies or similar technologies required for core functionality and security. Where additional analytics or third-party tools are used, we will aim to provide appropriate notice and choices, in line with applicable law.

7Data Retention

The contact form and the Get Involved forms remain inactive until a positive retention period has been configured. When enabled, an enquiry is assigned that expiry date when received and is automatically deleted after it expires. An authorised administrator can also delete an enquiry sooner. We do not collect newsletter subscriber records through this site.

8Security

When the contact and Get Involved services are enabled, the personal fields of an enquiry — including your name, contact details, message and the details specific to the option you chose — are encrypted by the Laravel application before they are stored in its MySQL database, and only authenticated administrators can access them. The services also use HTTPS in production, request-rate limits and a basic anti-spam field. No system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Access to the encryption key and database must be restricted by the service operator.

9Children and Young People

Some Gals Voices activities may involve participants under 18. Where this is the case we apply additional protections, which may include parental or guardian involvement and consent where required, age-appropriate communication, and restrictions on collecting or publishing children's personal information and images. See our Safeguarding Statement for more detail.

10Your Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to access, correct or request deletion of your personal information, to object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent. To make a request, contact us through our official contact channel. We will respond within a reasonable timeframe.

11International Transfers

Gals Voices has an international scope, and some service providers may process information in other countries. Where this happens, we aim to use appropriate safeguards consistent with applicable data protection requirements.

12Applicable Law and Framework

The privacy requirements relevant to our activities and the countries we serve will be reviewed before this policy is finalised. This includes Nigeria's data protection framework, where relevant. The final policy should be reviewed against applicable law before publication as the organisation's formal policy.

13Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy when our activities, website or legal requirements change. The latest version will be published on this page with an updated revision date. Significant changes will be brought to your attention where appropriate.

14Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how your information is handled, please contact us through our official contact channel.

Organisation: Girls Achieving Learning & Success Voices (Gals Voices)
Email: privacy@galsvoices.org