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Adolescent Girls Program
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The Adolescent Girls have always been the most disadvantaged within the disadvantaged groups. The traditional social constraints surrounding the growing girls rob them of a healthy and natural adolescence. Discriminations prevail in every sphere - education, nutrition, health-care, freedom of movement, entertainment, basic rights. The shadow of the ruining dowry makes the parents look upon girls as burdens. This and various other traditions and taboos may take neglects towards and restrictions on adolescent girls to a shocking point. |
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Its innovative approaches and early success have enabled it to be included as one of the ten examples from around the world in a publication by the Population Council at the World Bank, titled "Innovative Programmatic Approaches Towards Working with Adolescent Girls" (April 1996). Since then it has achieved many recognitions and replications, at home and internationally. AGP tries to empower the girls through continued education, skill training, awareness about health, reproductive health, social and legal rights, family life, income generating work, access to credit, personality and leadership development. The ultimate aim is the initiation of a new emancipated womanhood, girls’ development in an equal footing with the boys. The program in effect aspires to give back the girls their exuberant adolescence - the time to learn and the time to enjoy. |
The students and graduates of BSS, and some such disadvantaged students and drop outs in the formal stream, are encouraged to join and remain within AGP, till they are nineteen or more. Some 30,000 participants between the age of 11 and 19 are now participating in AGP, distributed among the 22 Units in various rural areas of Bangladesh. The girls and boys are organized into Adolescent Associations of an average size of thirty members, who initiate various empowerment measures through gender sessions, social actions, economic activities etc. |
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| Gender Session |
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These are weekly contact sessions for every Association often facilitated by a peer leader from among them or a staff facilitator. This is a participatory session for raising awareness and taking actions on the issues involved. Empowerment is created through gender session by developing capacity. The issues of gender session come from their real life. Their real life problems related to gender discrimination, deprivation of rights, repressions and how can they overcome these problems are discussed in the session. They also prepare some work plans for addressing their problems. Actually Gender sessions are the events through which they build up their knowledge and mindset in gender empowerment, and go for actions. |
The Solidarity Conventions |
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Monthly conventions bring together several neighbouring Associations in a Unit for daylong activities generating joy, confidence, and solidarity. Here they assemble to inspire one another, share and exchange their views of the program and express their roles in community development through leadership. Each convention has a definite agenda of discussions and action plans, relevant to the social actions taken by the various groups of participants. Successes and problems encountered in the empowerment process are also discussed. |
| Social Actions |
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AGP encourages the participants to take leading positions in a wide range of social actions. They have a steadfast commitment to resist discriminations and unjust practices such as early marriage, marriage without registration and demeaning divorce and abandonment, and intervene quickly whenever such a situation comes to their attention. They also undertake various other empowering and socially important activities such as birth registration, immunization, community work towards environment, health, communication and support to the needy. They do these on their own initiative demonstrating the zeal, strength and leadership capabilities of the participants. |
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Business for economic self-reliance |
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Economic self reliance through the girls’ own income generating efforts, preferably in non-stereotype activities, (example: photography, beauty parlour, vermicompost, mushroom etc.) has been a constant effort in Adolescents Girls’ Program. The focus has been to provide the girls with more opportunities to stand tall through empowering livelihood technology and helping them to take up these with a professional attitude. It helps the girls earn a respectable position in the family and community, which they deserve and are often deprived of. For this, |
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technology and business assistances are provided along with small credits. A total of Tk.103,376,000 ($1,476,800 approx.) loan has been disbursed to he self-employed youth in the year 2008 through CMES credit program, much of this to the AGP members or graduates. |
Advanced Adolescents’ and Young Women’s Organization |
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The senior members from the program (members who are in the program for at least two years) are encouraged to form their own platform in the shape of the ‘Advanced Adolescents’ and Young Women’s Organization (AAYWO). Organizations have thus been formed in all units which now number 57 with a total membership of 3,800. These try to manage their affairs at their own initiative, creating a leadership from among themselves. The main objective of this organization is to encourage and enable the girls and women to organize themselves for their rights, leadership, advocacy program. Networking with the duty bearers in different local government bodies, legal services organization and above all social actions are also in their agenda. |
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School Gender Program |
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While working with adolescents we have found that our formal education system hardly equip the adolescents for gender empowerment. For example, a substantial number of adolescent students are not aware of the various issues of adolescence like ill effects of discrimination, early marriage, rights, reproductive health etc. and are unable to take their own initiative to change the situation. To redress this, CMES has started a School Gender Program among the students of various mainstream high schools for spreading positive attitude towards gender equity as well as to increase awareness about various gender issues among the young members of the community leading to actions of their own. This is being done in the local schools in each of CMES working areas, in partnership with the teachers and students of the schools with the members of AGP taking the lead. |
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Adolescent Travelling Troupe (ATT) |
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This is a performing troupe consisting of some15 adolescents in each group. There are several troupes in each unit. ATTs are performing to disseminate the messages of AGP in the tunes of folk songs and in the form of folk arts. They perform in public places like bazaars and also in schools and household yards so that they can reach the womenfolk as well as the men from all sections of the society. The idea is to encourage other girls and women to realize their rights and to assert these, while motivating others to respect those rights. |
Gender Library |
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Gender libraries in the units for our adolescent girls are kept enriched and updated so that they can keep up with the pace of the gender advancement home and abroad. These books can develop their mindset for gender equity and give them more options to learn about their rights and how to earn them. The adolescents are encouraged to build a reading habit alongside their classroom education through these libraries which are maintained by our peer leaders. |
| Local Support Group |
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Local community’s support as well as those of parents is always necessary to strengthen the activities of Gender Program. So a team is formed with local community members, which is titled as Local Support Group (LSG). Sympathetic local government leaders, Imams, social workers, teachers, influential persons, guardians are the members of the LSGs. They meet in regular meetings and assist through their moral and practical support in upholding the gender rights & equity. |
Empowerment assessment |
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The major objective of AGP is to enable adolescents to assert their rights and to empower them. We have developed an assessment method, which we call GEI (Gender Empowerment Index), for a reasonably quantitative measurement of gender empowerment. Basically the GEI looks at things such as the attendance rate and contribution of the member in the gender sessions and conventions, personal initiatives in the social actions, success in the income generating activities, propensity in the use of gender library, the quality of a gender diary and business book she keeps, leadership in activities she provides etc. |
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