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Ishraq: Reaching the Girls Left Behind

Ishraq: Reaching the Girls Left Behind. A program in Egypt implemented by Save the Children Population Council CEDPA Caritas Egypt Egyptian National Council of Youth. Save the Children: Seeking a Youth Strategy. Diverse portfolio worth $40 million annually

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Ishraq: Reaching the Girls Left Behind

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  1. Ishraq: Reaching the Girls Left Behind • A program in Egypt implemented by • Save the Children • Population Council • CEDPA • Caritas Egypt • Egyptian National Council of Youth

  2. Save the Children: Seeking a Youth Strategy • Diverse portfolio worth $40 million annually • Programming spans our sectoral units • Wide range of “youth” (age 10-24) • Diverse outcomes sought (employment, health, education, delayed marriage, etc) • How to identify strategic focus?

  3. Need: Poverty passed onto the next generation via adolescent girls Face of HIV epidemic is increasingly young girls Maternal, infant mortality concentrated in young mothers Opportunity: Young girls’ gender roles are still being formed Educate a girl and you educate a family Opportunity to engage the entire community (leaders, parents, boys) Why Adolescent Girls?

  4. Adolescence closes doors for some • Meet Raya Montasser Zaid, a 14-year-old girl from Dallas, Beni Suef. • She left school at 10; does work at home, some daily labor in fields; has anemia. • Her future: early marriage, becoming a child mother, domestic seclusion.

  5. Illiteracy: Early marriage: FGC: High maternal, infant mortality: Restricted mobility: Limited decision making: 54% out of school 20% married (16-19) 88% (13-19) 89 MMR, 62 IMR 5% visited nearby city 50% no influence of marriage timing Rural Upper Egypt Adolescent Girls: A Profile of Vulnerability (baseline, ‘01)

  6. Adolescent Girls Globally 100 million girls at risk of early marriage • 70,000 girls die annually from pregnancy-related complications Africa: 50-70% affected by HIV • 6,000 HIV infections daily, 2/3 girls 88.5 million female child laborers • 70 million out of school, 55% girls

  7. Ishraq: New life opportunities Local youth centers deliver: Literacy + life skills + sports = Chance to enroll in school

  8. The Ishraq Story • A negotiated package • “Peer” introduction by veteran youth centers • Support girls through re-entry into school • National champions • Governmental scale-up partner

  9. Baseline-Endline Results* (01-04) 65% felt “strong and able to face any problem” More influence over marriage timing, partner selection (73 and 87% strong influence, vs 25 and 66% for control group) Better than literacy-alone programs (47% enrolled in school at endline vs 6% for literacy control group) * Population Council surveys Program Results 92% of Ishraq participants passed gvmt literacy exam 62% enrolled in school Cumulative results: 13 villages; 598 completed course; 217 enrolled in school Program Results

  10. Challenges to Adolescent Programming • How to identify those at risk early on? • How to do proactive, not remedial programming? • What protective assets, factors will help empower these girls? • How to build their assets in a socially acceptable way?

  11. Directions Worth Exploring • Timely investment: before puberty • Protective environment: find local champions to engage “gatekeepers” • Program platform: safe, public space • Social assets: credible adult mentors, supportive peer networks • Engaging package: sports and life skills with literacy curriculum • Realistic opportunities: enrolling in school

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