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THE EMPOWERMENT AND LIVELIHOOD ADOLESCENT (ELA) PROGRAM

 

BRAC has been creating safe spaces for adolescent girls to explore targeted social security issues affecting the development of girls and providing access to opportunities for girls to realise self-reliance through enterprise development and economic advancement. Presently there are now over 700 clubs across Uganda where girls meet to build friendships and to support each other to foster their connection to community, at these venues BRAC also provides further education and training in key aspects to improve girl health and wellbeing. It is through their membership and participation in these clubs that girls have access to the microfinance scheme. The access to finance is supported by inspiring entrepreneurship and equipping the girls with the necessary financial literacy skills to enable them to establish successful micro-enterprises.

 

Uganda is a country that is powered by small business, having no government social system, the only way for people to survive is for them to help themselves. Wherever you go you find everyone busy doing something to earn a little each day, this has created a colourful culture of work and competition, a fertile environment for innovation, entrepreneurship and citizen lead empowerment.

 

ELA OBJECTIVES
 

  • Empowering the adolescents and building their capacities so that they can lead a life of dignity and self-reliance, and become active agents of change in their own families and communities.

  • Participating meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives including education, livelihood strategies and increasing age at first marriage/pregnancy; and to become active agents of social change

  • Creating and sustaining a supportive environment for adolescent girls at household and community levels

  • Ensuring a secure place for socialisation and recreation for adolescent girls

  • Reduction of the rate of early pregnancy

  • Reduction of gender imbalance

  • Creation of awareness about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS

  • Creation of opportunities for leadership to be established among adolescents

  • Increasing the participation of adolescents in both their families and society

  • Increasing the community participation

     

COMPONENTS
 

  • Club Activities

  • Community Participation

  • Life Skills based Education

  • Livelihood and Job Creation

  • Financial Literacy

  • Microfinance

 

 



THE ‘ABRIENDO OPORTUNIDADES’ PROGRAM

 

Mayan girls are Guatemala’s most vulnerable population in comparison to both Mayan boys and their ladinomestizo counterparts. The face of Guatemala is largely young and indigenous—69% of the population is under the age of 30 and 38% are indigenous (INE, 2009). Therefore, Mayan girls represent a large subgroup nationally, with a population of 624,000 indigenous females between the ages 10-19. 81% of these indigenous children and adolescents live in poverty, and 32% live in extreme poverty, compared to 44% and 10% of ladino youth respectively (UNICEF, 2008). Over two-thirds of indigenous girls live in rural areas (Population Council, 2009) where they often lack access to basic health and social services. A situation of quadruple disadvantage based on age, gender, ethnicity and economic status feeds inter-generational cycles of social marginalization that lead to poor social, health and economic outcomes, particularly among indigenous girls and women.


Population Council launched the Abriendo Oportunidades programme in 2004 in collaboration with a range of local and international partners. It aimed to increase Mayan girls’ social support networks, connect them with role models and mentors, build a base of critical life and leadership skills, and provide hands-on professional training and experience.
 

From 2004-2006 the Population Council designed and implemented a pilot program reaching 250 indigenous girls in 10 rural communities. From 2007-2010, the program has grown from a pilot to expand geographically and thematically, engaging over 40 rural communities, working with 5 of the largest indigenous Mayan ethnic groups in Guatemala, and reaching more than 3,000 indigenous girls aged 8–18. Girls in the programme and those who graduate remain linked together through a national rural girls’ network that is also part of Abriendo Oportunidades.

 

At present, Abriendo Oportunidades is largely run by young female graduates of the programme. It uses a cascading leadership approach, wherein young females often harvested from within the programme, are trained and supported to become leaders and guide the girls’ clubs at the community level. The richness of the programme lies in addressing the complex and inter-related transitions that occur during adolescence across all domains of girls’ lives, including education, family life, and sexuality. The programme strives not only to improve the conditions and opportunities for Guatemala’s poorest sub-group, it works to positively change the social environment around girls, thereby attacking the underlying structural problems of gender inequality and inter-generational poverty. The ecological approach of the programme places girls ages 8-18 at the centre, while engaging the influential actors around them, including their parents, teachers and community leaders.


 

AO OBJECTIVES
 

  • Establish safe-spaces for girls at community level.

  • Develop cadre of indigenous girl leaders/mentors/role models in rural communities across Guatemala.

  • Provide internships and skill building to foster workforce development in young indigenous women.

  • Connect clubs and graduates through national rural girls’ empowerment network.


This initiative was developed and facilitate by InsightShare, click here to find out more about InsightShare.


Funding for the initiative was provided by the Nike Foundation

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