Abriendo Oportunidades

To improve connections between the Abriendo Oportunidades (AO) program and schooling opportunities for adolescent girls, we started a relationship with the Ministry of Education (MOE) through its unit for alternative secondary education (Dirección General de Educación Extraescolar, DIGEEX). In 2011, the MOE launched the Modalidades Flexibles Program (MF) designed for adolescents 15 who dropped-out of school, who are considered over-age for their grade level by the MOE, and who wanted to continue their education. Due to the lack of investment in the MF program, DIGEEX has relied on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to expand the program. Without a sustainable source of funding, DIGEEX has failed to implement an intentional strategy to reach segments of the population most in need of alternative education opportunities and, as such, the expansion of the program has been driven solely by NGOs. In 2013, the Council designed a strategy that unites the Abriendo Oportunidades model and the Modalidades Flexibles program to provide girls with opportunities to continue in secondary education. Our initial assumption was that adding a schooling component to AO would translate to higher chances of middle school completion for participants. The combination of components for this intervention was launched as Abriendo Oportunidades a la escuela (AO to School), and was designed to increase opportunities for adolescent girls to exercise their citizenship by sustaining their participation in AO while expanding access to middle school for 200 girls ages 14 to 19 in 10 rural indigenous communities.

The program began in a handful of rural communities in Guatemala and has since expanded nationwide to over 10 departaments, as well as to Belize (where the program is called Toledo Adolescent Girls Program) and Mexico (where the program is called Abriendo Futuros).