Every Adolescent Girl Empowered and Resilient (EAGER)

Project completed implementation in March 2023

IRC’s Every Adolescent Girl Empowered and Resilient (EAGER) project supported up to 32,500 of Sierra Leone’s most marginalised, adolescent girls. This included girls who were pregnant or young mothers, girls who were married, those affected by Ebola, those affected by violence, and those who were engaged in income-generating activities and/or could afford the cost of schooling.

The project supported girls in three cohorts which included those who had never been to school or who had dropped out early, with a specific focus on girls with disabilities. EAGER aimed to improve learning and support girls to transition primarily to vocational and professional training, self-employment or other employment, and where feasible, formal/non-formal education.

Activities

• Delivered an 11-month learning programme which included nine months of literacy and numeracy classes and life skills classes, followed by two months of business skills classes.
• Established safe spaces where girls could learn, facilitated by mentors and teachers from the community.
• Developed transition plans through one-to-one mentoring. This included guidance to create a market-driven business plan, links to local markets and/or the provision of start-up/growth grants.
• Supported the Government of Sierra Leone to achieve their strategic outcomes for increased literacy for out-of-school youth and engage the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in developing the first approved basic literacy and numeracy curriculum for out-of-school adolescent girls.
• Held monthly and quarterly community discussions respectively at the village and chiefdom-level, and broadcasting radio-dramas/discussions to raise and address common barriers through discussion and dialogue.

International Rescue Committee: https://www.rescue.org/