By Diane Dvorin | Co-founder & Managing Director
Progress and Accomplishments – 2014
Women Work Together (WWT), in collaboration with our Guatemalan partners at ADIMTU (Asociación de Desarrollo Integral: Mujeres Trabajan Unidas), set out to accomplish three ambitious goals during 2014:
We can report that great strides have been made toward achieving each of these goals:
Transfer of Program Ownership and Implementation
Coming into 2013, the ADIMTU staff began to take the lead in all aspects of the work, as the emphasis of WWT’s twice yearly visits to San Pedro shifted from program development and delivery to technical assistance, capacity building, along with financial support. This transfer was completed successfully during 2014 and culminated with the ADIMTU team’s December trip to Boulder for two weeks of staff development, strategic planning and face-to-face meetings that strengthened existing relationships and forged valuable new ones.
The ADIMTU staff is fully implementing a comprehensive, sequential set of activities for all girls in grades 7, 8, and 9 in 13 rural middle schools across San Pedro Sacatepéquez. They planned and led 3 teacher workshops for the 50 plus teachers and administrators who support the programs in their schools, along with a series of workshops for mothers and fathers of the participating girls. With the guidance and encouragement of WWT Program Director, Wendy Baring-Gould, in her periodic onsite visits and regular skype meetings with the team, ADIMTU has grown significantly in competence and confidence, and they are leading the program with skill, dedication and professionalism.
Refinements in Program Design
The advent of the 2014 school year in February marked a significant shift in program design and implementation. Rather than being a pullout program as before, the Girls Leadership Institute moved to a saturation model, with all girls at each rural middle school participating in the Leadership Institute for all three years. Each grade-level curriculum (The Life of My Mother, Family Reading Time and My Little Sister) is taught by ADIMTU field staff in two classroom session per month over the 10 months of the school year, extended via collaboration with teachers who incorporate activities related to the programs into their classrooms. During January and February ADIMTU staff worked closely with these teachers to verify that Institute programs indeed dovetail with existing national educational goals and objectives.
The Girls Leadership Institute is the banner that defines all of ADIMTU’s work. This extends to outreach to and education for all members of the girls’ educational community/support system: parents, teachers, community leaders, etc. ADIMTU hired an additional outreach worker in January to help implement this more broad-based and intensive contact strategy. The ADIMTU staff now totals 5 full-time professionals (all women) and one part time data manager in addition to the 5 – 10 university level interns who support the work each year (women and men, working together).
Program Evaluation
An informal but especially significant measure of our success is the fact that after only 2 years of piloting, the programs of The Leadership Institute have been welcomed into all 13 SPS rural middle schools. In a very short time, ADIMTU’s work has evolved from occasional programs and activities outside of school to one in which teachers are setting aside class time for ADIMTU staff to work directly with all of the girls in all 3 grades. As reported by teachers and school directors, attendance and retention are improving, girls are more engaged in the classroom and attitudes among parents and community leaders about the merits of educating girls are changing. The girls themselves consistently report that they see the connection between success in school and a better future for themselves and their families. There is clear and consistent anecdotal data from all quarters to suggest that this work is indeed changing lives. And now we are poised to demonstrate this with quantitative data as well.
During 2014 Women Work Together initiated a three-year longitudinal evaluation of changes in attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of the girls participating in Leadership Institute programs, as compared those in a control group in an adjacent community. Data will be used to monitor program success, guide changes, and support applications for future funding. This evaluation program is led and overseen by RoseMarie Perez-Foster, PhD, a WWT Board member and Senior Research Associate, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder. The design includes written pre and post tests given each year to each girl. These measure self- efficacy, self-esteem, language fluency and desire to continue their education. Results from this first year’s data will be available in March 2015. Preliminary data was available and used to inform program planning for the 2015 school year.
External Recognition and Support
Since its establishment in 2012, ADIMTU has become known as an agent of community change. As such, the staff is often called upon to do workshops or presentations on the importance of educating girls and the impacts doing so will have on families, communities and the country. They are frequent presenters on local TV, and are becoming known as conduits for innovative programming directed at San Pedro communities with the core message: Send Your Daughter to School. This role is sure to expand over time as financial support and staff time allow. Examples from 2014 include:
The Impact
The programs of the Girls Leadership Institute are active in all 13 rural schools of San Pedro, and include all the girls who attend middle school in each community. This saturation model is designed to change not only individual girls, but also the community’s overarching attitudes about the value of sending girls to school. These changes must start with the girls themselves, as their role models are their mothers, who grew up in a different time and were prepared to live lives that are no longer viable in Guatemala’s changing economic environment. Today’s girls need to see themselves in a new light, to understand that they have the capacity to change the lives they lead, and to demonstrate that possibility to their families and their communities. Every activity of the Girls Leadership Institute is designed to foster that change.
In addition to the direct response from the girls, teachers and parents, anecdotal data from community members familiar with the program report that the girls who are participating in the Leadership Institute understand that they have personal capacity and opportunity to create positive futures for themselves and their own families. In the communities where ADIMTU is working, the incidence of early pregnancy as well as the number of girls lured into human trafficking is significantly reduced. The girls themselves have an enhanced sense of their own value and are proving the truth of the Institute’s motto: Educated Girls Can Change the Future.
Individuals Served Directly during 2014
Middle school girls 13 –17 years old 630
Primary girls in Mi Hermanita program 250
Parents of middle school girls 800
Parents of primary girls 325
Teachers & directors in middle schools 50
Teachers & directors in primary schools 80
Total Individuals 2,135
Fiscal and Legal Infrastructure
Under the leadership of the ADIMTU Board, comprehensive steps have been taken to bring ADIMTU in compliance with the newly adopted fiscal and legal requirements of Guatemala’s federal government which pertain to associations of their type. This has involved working with an in-country CPA and auditor to formalize staff benefits, develop and implement extremely accurate accounting practices which track all expenditure with signed receipts, and create complete financial reports available for review.
Fundraising
During this past year, ADIMTU staff has independently generated four proposals to prospective funders which prefer to fund in-country. Two of these have been positively received and two others are still under review. In addition, they have hosted three site visits by program officers from prospective funders and managed these visits with very positive results. Coached and encouraged by WWT in these endeavors, the staff there has developed a firm understanding of the process and has been rewarded for their efforts. This newfound capacity helps to position the organization to move forward, post-2015, independent of WWT’s support. A central goal for 2015 is to strengthen prospects for sustainability on the ground.
We thank you for helping to make 2014 such a successful year. Without your support, these gains would not have been possible.
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