Empowering a New Generation of Adolescent Girls with Education (ENGAGE)

VSO’s Empowering a New Generation of Adolescent Girls with Education (ENGAGE) project seeks to empower up to 2,340 highly marginalised, out-of-school girls – including those with disabilities – through education across three underserved districts in Nepal’s Terai region.

The project will equip girls with tangible and transferable skills for better decision-making, more active roles in family decisions and the pursuit of their own economic opportunities. ENGAGE will do this through peer-support for adolescent girls, community interventions, social support for families of children with disabilities, structured trainings for teachers and mentors, and a key focus on inclusivity including support to the Government of Nepal to adopt new standards in disability assessment and identification.

Activities

• Offering all age groups literacy and numeracy education through formal and non-formal channels with special resourcing for girls with disabilities. Complementary learning activities will vary across age groups and will include; peer-based mentoring (older girls supporting younger girls), life skills, sexual and reproductive health and rights, vocational skills, financial literacy and business skills.
• Supporting younger girls with school enrolment and providing older girls (15–19 years old) with personalised social support.
• Developing robust Gender and Social Inclusion processes for educational institutions, informing school improvement plans.
• Delivering training for educators and mentors to establish inclusive methods and teaching environments as the norm.
• Supporting Government education officials to adopt the Washington Group set of questions for identification of disabilities among children.
• Promoting community-based attitudinal and behavioural change to promote inclusion of girls in education, with a focus on parents and caregivers but also actively seeking to build self-esteem amongst girls with a view to giving girls a voice and becoming influencers in their own communities.

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO): https://www.vsointernational.org/

*Number subject to adjustment following identification of beneficiaries