Ishraq: Reaching the Girls Left Behind

Ishraq: Reaching the Girls Left Behind

A program in Egypt implemented bySave the ChildrenPopulation CouncilCEDPACaritas EgyptEgyptian National Council of Youth

• 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?

Save the Children: Seeking a Youth Strategy

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?

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.

• 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)

100 million girls at risk of early marriage 70,000 girls die annually from pregnancy-related

complicationsAfrica: 50-70% affected by HIV 6,000 HIV infections daily, 2/3 girls 88.5 million femalechild laborers 70 million out of school, 55% girls

Adolescent Girls Globally

Local youth centers deliver:Literacy + life skills + sports =Chance to enroll in school

Ishraq: New life opportunities

• A negotiated package• “Peer” introduction by veteran youth

centers• Support girls through re-entry into school• National champions• Governmental scale-up partner

The Ishraq Story

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

• How to identify those at risk early on?• How to do proactive, not remedial programming?• What protectiveassets, factors willhelp empower these girls?• How to build their assets in a socially acceptable way?

Challenges to Adolescent Programming

• 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 andlife skills with literacy curriculum• Realistic opportunities: enrollingin school

Directions Worth Exploring