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