Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

200 young women will develop skills to take advantage of economic opportunities to generate their own income, making them independent and self-confident. They will be better mothers, and improve their environment at the family and community levels.

Project Message

“We want to work with adolescent indigenous girls to promote their rights and build their capacity for their own self-confidence and empowerment.”
- Salima Sarwar, Executive Director

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Katherine Zavala,
ACD Program Coordinator
IDEX
827 Valencia Street, Suite 101
San Francisco, CA 94110
United States
415-824-8384
Email:

Project Sponsor

International Development Exchange (IDEX)

Organization

Learn more about ACD, Association for Community Development and the project team.

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in Bangladesh and can also be found under Education.

For more information about Bangladesh, read the Human Development Report on Bangladesh or the Wikipedia entry for Bangladesh.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on June 04, 2008.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on June 21, 2007.

Latest Update from the Field

June 2008 Update

By Katherine Zavala - Coordinator of Programs, IDEX, June 04, 2008 10:19 PM

Within the past year, GlobalGiving donors have generously supported ACD in its Life Skills Based-Education (LSBE) trainings and income-generation training. This was accomplished both by providing workshops and through ACD’s ongoing work in forming adolescent groups in their villages. Moreover, ACD forms committees to engage families including men as a way of gaining their “buy-in” as to their daughters’ future possibilities and worth in society. It is not sufficient for girls to know their rights. They must be able to count on their parents and key community leaders – teachers, community leaders, clergy etc – for support when they are threatened with abuse or trafficking.

Overall a total of 4,160 girls participated in the LSBE trainings with a heavy emphasis on such topics as:
•   prevention of sexual abuse, forced labor and trafficking
•   prevention of early marriage
•   birth registration (needed to enroll in school and vote)
•   girls’ (and women’s) rights under UN conventions and Bangladeshi law
•   promotion of healthy family relationships
•   prevention of domestic violence
•   access to health services including reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Through these workshops they aim to build and restore girls’ self esteem and teach them to be their own advocates in a host of situations.

546 adolescent girls participated in income-generating activities such as cow, goat, hen and duck rearing, handicrafts, rice cultivation, tailoring, nursery, vegetable gardening, and pottery-making with the support of microcredit.

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