Education support, livelihood skills reduce child marriage

Education support, gender rights awareness, or livelihoods skills, the three skills-building approaches, can be successful in reducing child marriage said findings unveled by Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA).
 The approaches can also produce better health, educational, economic and social outcomes for girls, said the findings.
 BALIKA, a three year project (Nov 2012-Feb 2016), funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, unveiled the findings at BRAC Centre Inn yesterday. The Population Council and its partners launched its “BALIKA” project on 5 September 2013. The project is an action research for generating Evidence to Delay Marriage in Bangladesh.
 More than 9,000 girls participated in the BALIKA project. Its objective was not only to reach girls involved in the project but also their family, community and peers.
 For eighteen months participants met weekly with mentors and peers in safe, girl-only locations called BALIKA centers. There were 72 such centers (located in primary schools) in Khulna, Satkhira and Narail, which helped them to develop friendship, receive new technologies and acquire the skills needed to navigate the transition from girlhood to adulthood. They received education support through tutoring in Math and English; life skills training on gender rights and negotiation, critical thinking and decision making, training in entrepreneurship, mobile phone repair, photography and basic first-aid.
 Findings show that girls in BALIKA communities were one-fourth less likely to be married than girls living in communities not reached by BALIKA project.
 In the project where girls received educational support, girls were 23 percent less likely to be married at end-line than girls in the communities untouched by the project, girls were 24 per cent who received life kills training on gender rights and negotiation and in the communities under the project where girls received livelihoods training entrepreneurship, mobile phone repair, photography and basic first aid, girls were 22 per cent less likely to be married at end-line than girls in the communities not reached by BALIKA project.
  “My family wanted me to be a doctor. They forced me study hard though I wanted to be a singer and needed more time for practice. Now being a participant of BALIKA, I can make decision. I motivated my parents what I want to be in life, said Mukta,” an adolescent girl.
 Another BALIKA participant said: “I learned to say no from BALIKA center. I learned how to convince my parents and how to express my opinion to everyone if a marriage proposal comes at this age.”
 Talking to The Independent some of the girls who participated in the project said they are continuing their activities in their locality even the project ended.
 The three year project came to end with some recommendations which may be part of the government’s plan to end child marriage by 2021. They include: reaching girls at an early age, providing girls with skills they need to succeed, creating safe spaces for girls to come together and forge a common identity, engaging the community around issues that make girls vulnerable and use technology in skills building exercise to help girls build confidence and communicate with the world around them.
 Meher Afroze Chumki, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, who attended the reports unveiling ceremony as the chief guest, said most of the recommendations provided by BALIKA will be an asset to the government plan to reduce child marriage by 2021. But surely the government alone can not characterise the plan. “If you (projects like BALIKA) make partnership with the government you are always welcome”, she said.

Education support, livelihood skills reduce child marriage

Education support, gender rights awareness, or livelihoods skills, the three skills-building approaches, can be successful in reducing child marriage said findings unveled by Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income, and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA). The approaches can also produce better health, educational, economic and social outcomes for girls, said the findings. BALIKA, a three year project (Nov 2012-Feb 2016), funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, unveiled the findings at BRAC Centre Inn yesterday. The Population Council and its partners launched its BALIKA project on 5 September 2013. The project is an action research for generating Evidence to Delay Marriage in Bangladesh. More than 9,000 girls participated in the BALIKA project. Its objective was not only to reach girls involved in the project but also their family, community and peers. For eighteen months participants met weekly with mentors and peers in safe, girl-only locations called BALIKA centers. There were 72 such centers (located in primary schools) in Khulna, Satkhira and Narail, which helped them to develop friendship, receive new technologies and acquire the skills needed to navigate the transition from girlhood to adulthood. They received education support through tutoring in Math and English; life skills training on gender rights and negotiation, critical thinking and decision making, training in entrepreneurship, mobile phone repair, photography and basic first-aid. Findings show that girls in BALIKA communities were one-fourth less likely to be married than girls living in communities not reached by BALIKA project. In the project where girls received educational support, girls were 23 percent less likely to be married at end-line than girls in the communities untouched by the project, girls were 24 per cent who received life kills training on gender rights and negotiation and in the communities under the project where girls received livelihoods training entrepreneurship, mobile phone repair, photography and basic first aid, girls were 22 per cent less likely to be married at end-line than girls in the communities not reached by BALIKA project. My family wanted me to be a doctor. They forced me study hard though I wanted to be a singer and needed more time for practice. Now being a participant of BALIKA, I can make decision. I motivated my parents what I want to be in life, said Mukta, an adolescent girl. Another BALIKA participant said: I learned to say no from BALIKA center. I learned how to convince my parents and how to express my opinion to everyone if a marriage proposal comes at this age. Talking to The Independent some of the girls who participated in the project said they are continuing their activities in their locality even the project ended. The three year project came to end with some recommendations which may be part of the governments plan to end child marriage by 2021. They include: reaching girls at an early age, providing girls with skills they need to succeed, creating safe spaces for girls to come together and forge a common identity, engaging the community around issues that make girls vulnerable and use technology in skills building exercise to help girls build confidence and communicate with the world around them. Meher Afroze Chumki, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, who attended the reports unveiling ceremony as the chief guest, said most of the recommendations provided by BALIKA will be an asset to the government plan to reduce child marriage by 2021. But surely the government alone can not characterise the plan. If you (projects like BALIKA) make partnership with the government you are always welcome, she said.