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

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 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 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 protective assets, factors will help 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 and life skills with literacy curriculum Realistic opportunities: enrolling in school Directions Worth Exploring