A happy group of adolescent facilitators ready to get to work
Adolescent Community Transformation (ACT) project
In 2019 we applied and failed to get two DfID (now the FCDO) grants. Within a week of this disappointment we heard that we had received a significant anonymous donation. Following long discussions with LAMB we decided on a project to build on the experiences of ASHIRBAD which aimed to reduce child marriages, but also aimed to increase mental well-being (and decrease the number of suicides – the largest killer of young women and known to be 22 times more common in married adolescents than non-married adolescents).
The area of Nawabganj was chosen for two reasons – LAMB was already running a project there so a relationship with the local officials was already made, and second, it was known to be one of the poorest areas. 36 Adolescent Facilitators were hired and trained and 10,800 adolescents put into groups of 20. The groups are working through 15 modules, meeting monthly.
A baseline survey has been completed looking at attitudes and into ‘satisfaction with life’. It will be repeated at the end of the 3 year project and compared with ‘control’ areas to see if the intervention has helped. ‘Aunties’ have been trained to be listeners so that girls who have a problem can seek help. Teachers, health givers, officials and parents meet for workshops and the problems of adolescents and of women are discussed.
You can find the ACT project’s annual report for 2020 here, and for 2021 here.
There is a lovely article about LAMB’s ACT project on the Stewardship website - you can find it here