GlobalGiving.org: BRAC Safe Spaces & Loans for Girls in Tanzania

Girls in business - how you've changed 3 lives

Michelle Chaplin — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:32:22 GMT

Meet Happy, Madina, and Asha, three girls from Dodoma, Tanzania who took out micro-loans and received training from BRAC to start their own businesses. Thanks to you, these girls are happy, healthy and thriving!

Check out the video here: http://youtu.be/R2q-KEYO8CY

Links:

BRAC's Girl Effect keeps growing!

Michelle Chaplin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:35:58 GMT

The Girl Effect is growing and going strong in Tanzania! With support from you, the Nike Foundation, and UNICEF, we now have a total of 180 ELA clubs in Tanzania with more than 6,500 girl members!

Here's the progress on the 20 clubs you've helped to fund:

830 members and 20 mentors (one for each club)
All 830 members are now taking a life skills training course
175 girls provided with livelihood training
244 girls have formed microfinance clubs and taken out more than $37,000 in loans to help start and grow their business initiatives

Thanks for your continued support. It means the world - and the future - to these girls!

See what else BRAC has been up to at www.bracusa.org.

All the best,

Michelle

Links:

Read about Insana, one of the amazing girls in Bangladesh

Celebrating Girls' Empowerment

Michelle Chaplin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:23:04 GMT

Last month, women and men across the world celebrated International Women’s Day with marches of solidarity in support of women and girls. BRAC Tanzania staff and girls’ clubs joined the global celebration with a rally, a discussion of women’s issues, and a culture festival. BRAC Tanzania’s participation recognizes of the achievements of the girls in the Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents (ELA) program. Click here to read more and see pictures from the celebration.

Meanwhile, our girls are doing great! All 20 clubs are still running, and we keep making progress with:

830 members and 20 mentors (one for each club)
167 girls provided with livelihood training
244 girls have formed microfinance clubs and taken out more than $33,225 in loans to help start and grow their business initiatives

Thanks for your continued support!

About BRAC

BRAC is a global development organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about change in their own lives. BRAC’s holistic approach aims to achieve large scale, positive changes through economic and social programs that enable women and men to realize their potential. BRAC was launched in Bangladesh in 1972 and today reaches more than 138 million people in Africa and Asia through its programs that address poverty by providing micro-loans, self-employment opportunities, health services, education and legal and human rights services. Click here to learn more about BRAC.

Links:

BRAC Girls Clubs in Tanzania Celebrate International Women's Day

Girl Power in Tanzania

Michelle Chaplin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:40:06 GMT

The girls are doing great! It's clear that safe spaces for girls are in high demand in Tanzania.

In addition to providing the older girls club members with livelihood training in activities like agriculture, poultry rearing, tailoring, food processing and beautification, we've helped the girls set up their own village organizations so that they can take out loans from BRAC's special revolving loan fund for adolescent girls. Here's an update of our progress so far:

all 20 clubs have 20 mentors and a total of 814 members
more than $18,500 in loans has been disbursed to 182 girls
148 girls have received livelihood training

We've also started having inter-club netball competitions among the club. Click here to find out more about net ball. So far we've had 5 competitions

We're still developing materials for the life skills training program that we can distribute to the clubs and train the mentors to teach, so please keep your support coming, and spread the word about the importance of investing in girls.

Thanks again for all your support!

Best regards,

Links:

Find out more about BRAC

Girls getting loans and starting businesses

Michelle Chaplin — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:18:00 GMT

The girls are doing great! It's clear that safe spaces for girls are in high demand in Tanzania.

all 20 clubs have 20 mentors and a total of 814 members
more than $16,000 in loans has been disbursed to 163 girls
140 girls have received livelihood training

Thanks again for all your support!

Best regards,

Michelle

More Updates From the Field!

Michelle Chaplin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:29:21 GMT

Thus far, the programs have been a tremendous success!

The life skills training course will help adolescent girls acquire skills like critical thinking, self awareness and negotiation. Through this curriculum they will also learn about issues such as early pregnancy, early marriage, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. To date, the life skills training course has been provided to mentors who will work with the adolescent girls on a peer level. After another mentor training is held this month, the course will begin.

The livelihood training which aims to empower adolescents economically is well under way. Training is currently conducted in areas such as tailoring, photography, food processing and agriculture. Computer training will begin in July.

BRAC has also put a great deal of emphasis on community participation. Parents and wider community members are being involved in the program to create a supportive environment for the girls. This community involvement is occurring through forums with the girls’ mothers, parent meetings and workshops with community leaders. In addition, BRAC is looking into meaningful ways of involving adolescent boys.

Thank you sincerely to everyone who has supported BRAC's programs in Tanzania. With your continued support, we will be able to empower even more girls to live healthy and stable lives!

An update on BRAC's girls in Tanzania

Michelle Chaplin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:44:55 GMT

The projects are moving along well! All 20 clubs are still operating successfully, with a total membership of about 580 girls.

To date, livelihood training has begun and groups of girls are receiving instruction on vegetable growing, poultry, food processing, and tailoring. There are also plans to begin beautification and photography training this month. The goal of the livelihood trainings are to empower the girls economically by affording them skill-sets that they will be able to use to earn livings and become productive in their communities. We have kept our eye towards this goal in the search for relevant training courses for this population of Tanzanian adolescent girls.

Starting this month, the program will also begin offering income generation skills courses, the precursor to girls being able to use financial lessons to take out loans in microcredit groups. The life skills training course is still being developed, as we strive to include instruction on issues more specific to Tanzanian adolescents such as early pregnancy, rape, prostitution and drug addiction. Materials should be completed this month, and we are looking forward to beginning this component of the program.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our work! We hope you will continue to stand by us, as we empower and educate the Tanzanian adolescents who will grow up to be able to support themselves and their families in a more stable livelihood.

BRAC's Safe Spaces for adolescent girls in Tanzania are up and running!

Michelle Chaplin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:45:23 GMT

Lutfor, the Program Coordinator, playing chess with the girls

Thank you all for your continued support of BRAC's Safe Spaces and Loans for Adolescent Girls in Tanzania. I just returned from visiting some of the girls' clubs in the Dodoma region of central Tanzania and wanted to give you a few updates:

*All 20 clubs have been set up. Each club has an average of 29 members, so a total of 580 girls are benefiting from the project. *We've provided training to 20 adolescent leaders/mentors. *We've begun holding parents' and mothers' forums on a monthly basis to ensure support from the community and encourage parents' involvement with their daughter's lives. *We're developing the life skills training course, which will provide the girls with important information on topics such as gender equality, reproductive health, leadership skills, etc. *We've conducted a survey of the girls and in the local community to determine the best livelihood training courses to offer. *Livelihood and financial training courses will be offered later this year, after which the girls will be able to take out small loans to start their own businesses.

I've also posted some stories from my trip to Tanzania on BRAC's blog: http://blog4brac.blogspot.com. Please take a look!

With your continued support, these girls will soon be able to generate income for themselves and their families so they can afford things like school supplies, food and clothes.

Links:

BRAC's Blog

Update of BRAC’s Program for Adolescent Girls in Tanzania

Michelle Chaplin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:52:25 GMT

Thank you to all of our donors for your gracious support of BRAC’s program to provide safe spaces and loans to teenage girls in Tanzania. With your help we have made measurable progress towards reaching our goal. Here’s an update of our progress so far: • We’ve surveyed and held discussions with teenage girls and their mothers to select the best meeting times, activities and training programs for the girls. BRAC staff members will continue to hold meetings with mothers to stay informed about the girls’ progress in school and at home. • We’ve developed training materials, recruited and trained 10 adolescent club mentors. All of the mentors are female. • We’ve opened 4 adolescent clubs where 100 girls can safely gather and discuss issues that are important to them with each other and with their mentors. • Financial and livelihood training programs will begin in later this year, after which the girls will be able to take out small loans to start their own businesses. With your support we will continue to build adolescent clubs, sign on and train mentors, and recruit members to participate in the clubs.

Best wishes,

Michelle