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Educate Girls

About Educate Girls:EducateGirls is a non-profit organization that aims to tackle issues at the root causeof gender inequality in India’s education system. The organization was foundedin 2007 by Safeena Husain, who has been committed to girls’ education since2002. EducateGirls works to reform government schools by leveraging existing community andgovernment resources. Along with education, the NGO focuses on improving schoolinfrastructure for girls, bringing about community ownership and advocatinggirl leadership.EducateGirls has its management and outreach office in Mumbai and operations in Pali,Jalore and Sirohi districts in Rajasthan. Since its inception the NGO hasworked with about 5,000 government schools in all three districts, where theintroduction of creative learning and teaching techniques has increasedlearning outcomes by 25 per cent. Since 2008, the organization has impacted thelives of over 200,000 girls in 2 districts and aims to positively impact thelives of 1.8 million children by 2016.EducateGirls has been founded by Safeena Husain, who has worked on grassroot projectsaround the world and started community health projects in Ecuador, Mexico, Bolivia and South Africa. From 1997 to 2004, she was the Executive Director for Child Family Health International in San Francisco and was also Board Chair for International Development Exchange EducateGirls Vision, Mission and Goal:VisionToachieve behavioral, social and economic transformation, so that everygirl-child in India has equal opportunities to access quality education.MissionToreform government schools to improve girls’ education by leveraging existingcommunity and government resources

Goal:

To improve access to and quality of education for 1.8 million children in 30,000schools across 9 gender gap districts in Rajasthan, by 2016.

Educate Girls model

The Educate Girls comprehensive model includes:·

Reform of government schools through community ownership·

Reach 100% enrollment

Achieve higher attendance and improve learning outcomes for all girls·

Successfully engage girl students, teachers, schools, communities and the government to create a sustainable, scalable and holistic platform

Milestones·

2008-2010 Won government approval to start a pilot project in 500 schools in Pali.·

2010 Scaled to 2,342 government schools across entire Pali District.·

2011 Signed a MOU with the government to replicate the model in 2,083 schools in Jalore district.·

2013 signed a MOU with the government to replicate the model in Sirohi district.

Programme implementation·

Team Balika: Building a cadre of village-based youth leaders to work as champions for girls' education and catalysts for school reform. Team Balika members work in the schools as well as village communities spreading awareness on girl education. They are responsible for enrollment,retention and learning outcomes for all girls.·

Enrollment/Retention: Training existing School Management Committees (SMCs) in making the school infrastructure more girl friendly. Together they develop action plans for girls' enrollment and support the SMCs in accessing government funding for school improvement projects. A sample study of 500 schools indicated that schools with separate girls' toilets and drinking water facilities had increased from 44% to 71% and from 46% to 82% respectively.·

Learning: Educate Girls’ pre-tests in government schools have found that only 15% primary school children can read a simple story in Hindi, their native language. Educate Girls’ trains government teachers in child-centric, "Creative Learning and Teaching" (CLT) techniques to ensure an increase in learning levels and outcomes.·

Promote Leadership: They form Girls'Councils or "Bal Sabhas", which stimulate girls' participation in matters related to their growth and development and equip girls with life skills.

Payment-by-Results (PbR) pioneered by Educate Girls tying funding to outcome and impact:

For the first time in India, a ground breaking Payment-by-Results initiative in the social sector has been pioneered by Educate Girls. It was launched as a pilot programme in Rajasthan’s Sirohi district, in July 2013. The PbR programme is aimed at paving the way for more strategic philanthropy and greater accountability in the social sector. The premise of PbR is that full or partial funding is tied to achieving pre-determined goals. By tying investment to outcomes rather than activities, PbR provides NGOs with the flexibility to experiment and improve their programmes, whilefunders are ensured of a high social return on their investment. Major international development agencies, like the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)have adopted PbR programmes.The Educate Girls pilot PbR programme is targeted to run in approximately 200 schools in Sirohi district, Rajasthan commencing from July 2013 to 2015.Educate Girls will deliver all social services in this programme while the donor will pay for social outcomes. The framework for the project has been created by Instiglio, a Harvard-incubated consultancy that designs, structuresand implements results-based financing models. They will provide technical advice to Educate Girls for the duration of the pilot. An independent auditor will monitor and verify the impact of the programme. The PbR initiative has the potential to rapidly scale up the impact of the programme and to help Educate Girls reach over 30,000 schools in some of India’s most acute gender gap areas within a short period of time.

Recognition:

Educate Girls has been recognized by the following foundations:·

WomenChangeMakers Awards, 2012·

The CSR Women Leader Award, 2012·

The Rotary’s Anita Parekh Award, 2012·

Asia 21, Young Leader, 2011·

The World Bank’s India Development Market place Award, 2011

EdelGive social Innovation Honors, 2011 ·

Karmaveer Puraskar, 2011·

Village Capital Award, 2010

Click on

http://educategirls.in/index.php/what-we-do/recognition for further details. Links to media coverage for Educate Girls:·

http://www.avpn.asia/resources/newsletters/june-2013-edition/social-impact-bonds-make-india-debut-with-dasra-programme/·

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/championing-the-cause-of-girl-education/article4947301.ece·

http://thealternative.in/inclusivity/panel-discussion-on-educate-girls-payment-by-results-initiative/·

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/now-donate-for-a-cause-with-assured-results/article4976134.ece·

http://www.nextbillion.net/blogpost.aspx?blogid=3431·

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/for-social-returns-on-csr-corporates-can-invest-in-sibs/articleshow/21792065.cms·

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/team-balika-shows-the-way/article5015976.ece·

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c5f074c2-0fcd-11e3-99e000144feabdc0.html#axzz2dQTPdkOu

 References:· 

Educate Girls: History·       Rajasthan Education Initiative- Government of Rajasthan Official Website·       Educate Girls: Reaching out to literacy backwaters through community engagement Cause Because, Apr 15, 2011·       http://www.educategirls.in/images/file/abouteg.pdfExternal Links:·       Educate Girls, Official Website