Nicole Cushman

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

11-2010

Abstract

This report documents the process, key results, and lessons learned during the evaluation of the 2009–10 cycle of the Abriendo Oportunidades program. Abriendo is one of very few youth-serving programs in Guatemala that specifically targets one of the country’s largest and most vulnerable and underserved population segments; namely rural indigenous girls and young women ages 8–24. The program divides this critical demographic into age-appropriate cohorts and works with them to build their health, social, and economic assets as key strategies to improve health and education outcomes, improve gender equality and promote community development—thereby contributing to breaking the poverty cycle that so often repeats in rural Guatemala. Through a growing national network of community-based rural girls’ clubs, the Abriendo program identifies and works with the poorest girls in the poorest communities. Understanding that girls’ lives do not operate in a vacuum, the program uses an ecological framework and theory of change to engage and involve key adult stakeholders in girls’ lives (including parents, community leaders, teachers, service providers) and positively influence girls’ broader family, community and social environments in order to promote their health and well-being. This pioneering program places girls at the center (girl-centered programming is defined as the development of programmatic strategies that build girls’ assets as well as influence the environment and stakeholders around them, involving girls directly and working from their perspectives), while connecting them to national and international policy agendas—encouraging and demonstrating how strategic investments in vulnerable girls help meet national and international development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

DOI

10.31899/sbsr2010.1000

Language

English

Project

Abriendo Oportunidades (“Opening Opportunities”)

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