BEST Girls- Being Empowered, Strong and Together

BEST Girls – Being Empowered, Strong, and Together is being implemented by the “ADDOOYYEE” cluster, composed of four local organizations that advocate for girls' and children’s rights. These 4 youth-led/youth-focused grassroots organizations have been working in partnership since 2017 on numerous development projects. Using this existing synergy, the organizations came together and created a strong cluster called “ADDOOYYEE” to implement the BEST Girls project. Eshet Children and Youth Development Organization (ECYDO) is the lead organization of the cluster that is responsible to manage the overall administrative and financial aspects of the project; Better Life for Women and Children Charity Organization (BLWCCO), De La Salle Community Development Organization (DCDO), and Serk SRH and Development Youth Association (SSRHYDA) are members of the “ADDOOYYEE” cluster and responsible for implementing various activities of the project that started in the memorandum of understanding.

The specific objectives of the project are; to increase access to appropriate safe spaces where adolescent girls meet, play, and share ideas, increase the ability of adolescent girls to apply their rights and power, and improve stakeholders’ engagement and support in relation to adolescent girls’ activities. Some of the major activities of the project include; creating safe spaces for adolescent girls, establishing and strengthening girls led council, providing peer-to-peer mentoring and support by girl’s council members, providing TOT training for girls’ leaders on topics of local made sanitary pad preparation, life skills, SRH, basic business skills, and providing vocational training for vulnerable girls.

The project uses the power-building model to empower adolescent girls who are able to decide their own life matters. The project also works to protect children and adolescents from violence, as well as build movements that give power to adolescent girls to mitigate factors that expose them to violence.

The project will apply a cluster approach to ensure clear and transparent working relationships that are inclusive and mutually beneficial, based on equity, respect, and passion.

There are three overarching principles as important for our cluster partnership to be able to work together.

• Equity –all partners have valuable resources and expertise, as well as risks and benefits that lead to a complementary purpose and respect.
• Transparency –a crucial factor in developing trust, a positive environment to collaborate, and ensuring decisions are made in a socially responsible way.
• Mutual benefit –including the commitment to other partners as well as to the shared partnership, leading to deeper engagement.

The program has been implemented in four countries of East Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

ECYDO and cluster members have established a project management team that consists of Executive Directors and one program staff from each cluster member. All management functions including monitoring and supervision will be the main responsibility of this management team which shall be coordinated and facilitated by ECYDO. Nonetheless, the Project Management Team (PMT) will involve various groups of stakeholders including adolescent girls, to make the management of the project as participatory as possible.

Results to date:

. 4 Safe Spaces established and made functional for adolescent girls in which adolescent girls meet, play, and share their ideas. These SS are located in and out of the school setting in the project target area- Bika kebele. Various recreational and skill development opportunities have been available for adolescent girls within the SS.
▪ Vibrant Girls Council Established with a member of 20 girls’ leaders. This girl’s council is the backbone of the project and is effectively engaged in advocacy works related to violence against girls.
▪ 10 Dialogues and Discussions conducted with relevant stakeholders on issues of support and protection for vulnerable adolescent girls.
▪ 10 Girls-led campaigns conducted to promote the rights of girls and fight violence against adolescent girls. Roadshow, social media campaigns, petitions, and local FM radio engagements are some of the strategies applied for the campaigns.
▪ A logo was created particularly for this project.
▪ 1000 IEC materials including billboards produced and disseminated on issues of Gender-Based-Violence and to promote the established Safe Spaces.
▪ Life Skills, SRHR, Para-counseling, and Mentoring Technics, Basic Business Skills and Entrepreneurship, Local-made sanitary-pad preparation training provided for 20 girls leaders
▪ Vocational training provided for 100 adolescent girls.