BRAC's project will provide 2,000 girls in Bangladesh with safe spaces which will enhance their social awareness, confidence and build their social capital, and encourage life skills development.
There are 600 million adolescent girls living in poverty in the developing world. This project benefits a fraction of these poor in Bangladesh. Safe Spaces seeks to reduce the inequalities and gender discrimination, increase sociability, improve educational attainments, economically empower teenage girls, reduce early marriage and its harmful effects and enhance health awareness and practices.
Develop 50 safe spaces; train 50 teenage leaders & 2,000 girls in livelihood, life skills, & financial literacy; establish microfinance groups & initiate loan activities; perform process and qualitative research & impact evaluation.
An educated girl marries 4 years later, has 2.2 fewer children and reinvests 90% of her income in her family. Educating girls reduces overall HIV and malnutrition, leads to higher high school attendance and reduces risky and early sexual initiation.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
