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A Quality Approach to Mainstreaming Best Practicies
Since 2002, World Education has worked in Prey Veng Province to develop and implement interventions that aim to increase educational access and retention of vulnerable girls, children and youth aged six to 17 in quality education programs through the EPSSEG and OPTIONS Programs. After five years, evaluations of these programs have concluded that OPTIONS has developed effective models that have the potential for replication on a larger scale and can be sustained through the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) funds. Through the support of UNICEF, World Education is currently focusing on larger scale replication with the aim to mainstream its more effective education interventions under the national Child Friendly School framework and the national Education for All strategy.
The program's four main objectives are to: mainstream a gender-sensitive response; mainstream a holistic approach to developing and implementing local life skills programs; establish a MoEYS coordinated and managed community-based livelihood development model for out-of-school youth; and lastly, to retain at-risk girls and children in need of special protection in upper primary and lower secondary school through scholarship support.
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Brighter Futures Program
In Nepal, one of every three children is a child laborer, with an estimated 2.6 million children between the ages of five and fourteen working on farms, in factories, in businesses, or in other people's homes. World Education is implementing a four-year project to combat child labor through education. World Education's Brighter Futures Program works closely with the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor in Nepal. Brighter Futures activities are carried out at two levels: in communities where children come from or where they currently live and work; and at the policy level with government and international agencies.
World Education and its government and nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners use what they learn from project implementation at the community level to help inform existing and new government policies related to child labor. World Education and its partners work to increase children's access to education, and to improve the relevance and quality of education and training for children rescued from abusive forms of child labor. This includes provision of nonformal and vocational education opportunities, the strengthening of community based education, and the strengthening of monitoring and supervision systems used in primary education and nonformal education programs. Brighter Futures engages policymakers in the continuous review of lessons learned from program implementation and the study of specific barriers to children's participation in order to formulate and improve educational policy on child labor.
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Cambodian Living Arts
(2008 - 2011)
Approximately ninety percent of Cambodia's performing artists died during the Khmer Rouge regime, a devastating blow to Cambodia's arts and traditions. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, this cultural tragedy was compounded by two subsequent decades of economic hardship, when very few of the surviving master musicians could make a living performing or teaching.
Cambodian Living Arts (CLA)-- formerly known as the Cambodian Master Performers Project (CMPP) -- was founded in 2000 by Arn Chorn-Pond, a Cambodian-American refugee who was featured in the Emmy-nominated movie, The Flute Player.
A project of World Education from 2001 - 2009, CLA worked to revive the traditional arts of Cambodia by pairing master teachers who survived the Khmer Rouge regime with young artists, thereby not only preserving the cultural heritage of Cambodia but also providing economic opportunities for artists.
CLA worked towards the vision that Cambodia in the year 2020 will be a country experiencing a cultural renaissance so dynamic that the arts have become Cambodia's international signature. Khmer arts will have become a wellspring of Cambodian strength and resiliency, and a vital source of healing and reconciliation.
In September of 2009, the Cambodian Living Arts Project was transferred to the Marion Institute, where it continues this work.
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Children First
Children First is a five-year program funded by USAID that mitigates the impact of HIV and AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe by developing, implementing, and improving proven models for care and support of vulnerable children. Children First is committed to the use of child-focused, community-driven comprehensive programming that addresses children's needs and incorporates cutting edge technical innovations while valuing the unique contributions of resourceful, creative community responses.
Under the five-year strategic vision for the program, Children First established the following strategic objectives: 1) build on the strength of current programming by more established NGOs and help bring their programs to greater scale; 2) give direct care and support to local groups by providing assistance in program design and delivery, technical training and ongoing organizational strengthening; and 3) reach orphans and vulnerable children.
World Education is implementing Children First in collaboration with John Snow, Inc. through their Bantwana Initiative
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Children's Participation in Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM) Program
In the Philippines, crop production losses from pest infestations and diseases are significant, and the use of pesticides on crops is not the answer to improving food supplies. Concern is growing because pesticides compromise human health, contaminate soils and water, damage ecosystems, and contributes to pest resurgence. In rural areas where many children attending schools come from farming families, introducing integrated production and pest management (IPPM) in schools promotes good environmental management principles. World Education's IPPM training equipped students with the skills to address not only the overuse and misuse of pesticides but also other pressing issues in the environment and in their communities. With funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in the Philippines, and in collaboration with the Philippines' Department of Education and Philippine NGOs, World Education introduced IPPM in schools in three provinces. The program promoted sustainable agricultural practices through introducing young farmers to IPPM. It improved teaching methods by introducing discovery learning methods to teachers, and encouraged local governance of education by promoting the use of community-school committees to help plan, implement and evaluate program activities.
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Empowering Cocoa Households with Opportunities and Education Solutions (ECHOES)
Low literacy and numeracy skills impede farmers' abilities to efficiently manage production and loans, negotiate agreements, understand the business aspects of cocoa farming, apply new technologies to increase crop yields, and understand costing and pricing calculations. The ECHOES initiative aims to strengthen cocoa growing communities in Western Ghana by expanding opportunities for youth and adults through relevant education.
ECHOES is implemented in collaboration with the International Foundation for Education and Self Help, Winrock International, and Leadership Africa USA.
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Faisons Ensemble
Faisons Ensemble, a 31-month project funded by USAID/Guinea, focuses on improving basic services in health, education, agriculture, and natural resource management through better governance practices. The project targets communities in Upper Guinea, Forest Guinea, and the five communes of Conakry.
The goal of Faisons Ensemble is to increase citizen access to better services in the health, education, agriculture, and natural resources sectors, with the aim of improving living conditions for Guineans. Faisons Ensemble will recruit and work with "champions" within local government, civil society, and the media, to provide capacity building, technical, and financial support for groups that promote good governance practices.
The project has four main objectives:
1. Improved effectiveness of government institutions and decentralization and local service delivery
2. Greater visibility and effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts
3. Increased capacity and effectiveness of civil society, working through strong CSOs and CBOs that are well managed and participate, demand accountability and transparency in service delivery, and advocate for good governance.
4. Increased citizen access to more diverse sources and types of information.
World Education is responsible for managing the third and fourth components of Faisons Ensemble, which focus on the capacity and effectiveness of civil society for improved civic participation and advocacy, and citizen access to information - as well as cross-cutting adult literacy, youth engagement, and gender. World Education also oversees overall grants management of the project, ensuring that targeted champions at community, regional, and national level receive the full financial support required to advance innovations in good governance.
World Education collaborates with five other U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGO) and two Guinean NGOs in the Faisons Ensemble consortium led by the Research Triangle Institute.
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Farmer Field Schools in Nepal - The Next Generation
(2002 - 2005)
The reality for young women and out-of-school youth in rural Nepal is that agriculture is a major focus of their lives. Over 82% of Nepal's population is supported by agriculture. Rapid population growth has meant that although agricultural production is increasing, levels of malnutrition are still rising. World Education is working with older girls graduating from its Girls Access to Education (GATE) Program and out-of-school youth in its Brighter Futures Program by linking them to farmer field schools (FFS).
World Education works with its nine NGO partners to identify girls and out-of-school youth who have not entered school or who have dropped out. If a community is interested, they form groups of parents and daughters or youth interested in attending a FFS. Once groups are formed, the NGO FFS trainer conducts a Farmer Field School that lasts for approximately 18 weeks, or a full cropping season. During FFS, participating farmers gather in a village field each week to compare their own standard farming practices to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. The primary learning curriculum is the paddy field itself, where most learning activities take place. At the end of the season, girls, out-of-school youth, and their parents share what they have learned with the community through a Farmer Field Day. This is their opportunity to show (and show off to) the rest of the community. Farmers can proudly share what they have learned with their families, neighbors, friends and peers. Through sharing, they also recall the whole Farmer Field School experience and reinforce their own learning.
Read the following success story about the program: Taking on the Future: Building a Better Life through Education and Agriculture
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Girls 1st
In Sub-Saharan Africa, rates of HIV infection for women are double that of men. Poverty, high rates of illiteracy, low social status and cultural norms that marginalize decision-making power of girls and women all contribute to the alarming rise of HIV infection, particularly among out-of-school adolescent girls living in rural areas who, due to reasons of abject poverty, are extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation as a matter of survival. Yet, they are also Africa's future. Without adequate investments in skill building to prevent HIV, increased confidence and support for decisionmaking, and relevant vocational skills, girls have few opportunities to unleash their potential and make important contributions to their families, their communities, and their country.
Girls 1st is a community-based pilot initiative to prevent HIV by equipping the most at-risk girls with essential knowledge of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STI), developing their trade skills and market awareness, and empowering them with leadership and confidence to make healthy life choices on their own.
The program is implemented by World Education and Ghana Red Cross/Eastern Region in partnership with local communities with funding from the M*A*C AIDS Fund.
Read the following success story about the project: Educating Girls about HIV through Peer Leadership
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HIV Prevention - IEC and Life Skills for Out-of-School Youth
(2005 - 2006)
World Education has built on its broad base of expertise in youth-targeted HIV prevention in designing new interventions targeting in-school and out of school youth in Takeo and Pursat provinces. The HIV prevention education strategies combine an emphasis on life skills, non-formal education curriculum development and training.
Funded by HealthNet International, the goal of HIV Prevention for In-School and Out-of-School Youth is to change behaviors and attitudes of youth (ages 15 to 24) related to HIV, thereby making them less vulnerable to HIV infection. The objectives are (1) to improve the quality of learning regarding life skills and HIV awareness for youth (2) to increase and enhance school and community support for HIV prevention activities (3) and to increase the capacity of district and community level stakeholders to support HIV prevention activities.
World Education's strategy has three components: Information, Education and Communication (IEC) and Life Skills for Out-of-School Youth, In-School IEC and Life Skills Training for HIV/AIDS, and Promoting Healthy Youth.
IEC and Life Skills for Out-of-School Youth works with adolescent boys and young men, adolescent girls and young women, and married couples. World Education employs a two-pronged strategy for behavior change among out of school youth. Individualized life skills classes for each of the three groups combine issues of HIV awareness and human sexuality with a range of additional topics highly relevant to the individual sub-populations. Peer education is also carried out among all three youth sub-populations, to provide opportunities for counseling and information dissemination to take place in informal settings. Local communities are to be heavily involved in project implementation.
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HIV/AIDS Education for Youth Project
(2000 - 2005)
Cambodia has one of the greatest landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) problems in the world, with an estimated 3,000 square kilometers of land infested with 4 to 6 million landmines. Landmines and UXO threaten the safety of children and adults, particularly in the northwestern part of the country, which experienced heavy fighting during the last three decades of civil unrest and war. To help protect young people from the dangers posed by landmines and UXO, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports and World Education have been developing and implementing the Mine Risk Education Project for Children since July 2000. Funded primarily through UNICEF, the two and a half year long project will train teachers and school administrators living in the most affected districts to plan and carry out activity-based mine risk education programs for school children, and to organize community based mine awareness activities with a particular focus on out-of-school youth. The mine risk education program will be fully integrated into the official primary school curriculum before the end of the project, so that mine risk education can be taught by experienced teachers and community members to future generations of school children without the need for external assistance.
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HIV/AIDS Prevention - Promoting Healthy Youth
(2005 - 2005)
World Education has built on its broad base of expertise in youth-targeted HIV prevention in designing new interventions targeting in-school and out of school youth in Takeo and Pursat provinces. The HIV prevention education strategies combine an emphasis on life skills, non-formal education curriculum development and training.
The goal of HIV/AIDS Prevention for In-School and Out-of-School Youth is to change behaviors and attitudes of youth (ages 15 to 24) related to HIV/AIDS, thereby making them less vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection. The objectives are (1) to improve the quality of learning regarding life skills and HIV/AIDS awareness for youth (2) to increase and enhance school and community support for HIV prevention activities (3) and to increase the capacity of district and community level stakeholders to support HIV prevention activities.
World Education's strategy has three components: IEC and Life Skills for Out-of-School Youth, In-School IEC and Life Skills Training for HIV/AIDS, and Promoting Healthy Youth.
Promoting Healthy Youth entails creating health clubs for in-school youth as a means of getting students interested in the topics of HIV and AIDS through membership and participation in the clubs. Club members will engage in HIV education and outreach activities, community mobilization and IEC development and dissemination.
Where possible, the three approaches are integrated with one another, particularly with out-of-school youth and in-school youth, so that the two groups are working together to prevent HIV among youth broadly, and in the hope that a critical mass of involvement among youth from all backgrounds can encourage greater community receptivity to the issue of HIV prevention.
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Indonesia Learning Farm
( - 2007)
In Indonesia, poor, vulnerable youth have been deeply affected by the country's economic crises and lack both education and economic opportunities. Many feel hopeless at a time when they should be optimistic about the future. Lacking education, skills, or support, they are at risk of being trapped in a cycle of poverty and never realizing their full potential.
The Learning Farm seeks to address the lack of skills, opportunities and hope amongst vulnerable Indonesian youth by providing entrepreneurial and life skills training in the context of an operational organic farm. Located in Puncak, West Java, the Learning Farm provides Indonesian youth with the tools and skills needed to live healthy and productive lives and become change agents within their own communities.
The Learning Farm is a community where vulnerable youth can find opportunity and support; an educational center where these youth can obtain practical skills and knowledge; a productive organic farm as the primary educational medium; a social enterprise where youth apply their new skills to benefit themselves and support the sustainability of the Learning Farm; and a networking center where experience and lessons learnt are shared with other organizations working with vulnerable youth as well as with the community at large.
The farm serves as both an educational center and an organic farm, where students take responsibility for tasks related to running the farm and participate in structured learning activities that utilize a "learning by doing" approach. The farm's curriculum includes basic literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking skills, organic farming, enterprise development, health, life skills, computers, and English. Using environmentally-sound growing methods, the youth work in teams to produce organic vegetables for their own consumption and also for sale. Most importantly, the farm has become a community where young people feel welcome, work directly with supportive adults, and have a chance to focus their energy and intelligence on building meaningful skills and relationships that will help them over the course of their lives.
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Laos Economic Acceleration Program for the Silk Sector (LEAPSS)
(1999 - 2006)
For centuries the Lao silk textiles have been admired for their beauty, quality, and unique designs. The domestic and international demand for textiles has been high. Over the past 25 years, however, the silk industry in Laos has suffered a decline, and the demand has exceeded the supply. The limited supply of domestic raw silk creates a demand for imports from surrounding countries, resulting in higher costs and lower profits for silk weavers. From 1999 to 2006, the Laos Economic Acceleration Program for the Silk Sector (LEAPSS), was funded by USAID and implemented by the Consortium of World Education and World Learning. The project provided training assistance and technical support to silk growers in the remote provinces of Xieng Khoung and Houphan. In addition, the program offered training and networking support to agricultural extension workers, weavers, small business owners, and traders, with a particular focus on women micro-entrepreneurs. The Consortium and its government partner planned for this program to serve as a policy model for future private enterprise development in Laos. The project was active through 2006 and is no longer being implemented.
Read the following success story about the program: Expanding Agricultural Options in Laos
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OPTIONS: Combating Child Trafficking and Exploitation through Education
(2003 - 2007)
Cambodia serves as a country of origin, transit, and destination for both domestic and international trafficking networks. A recent report estimates that 30% of commercial sex workers in Cambodia are under 18 years of age. These girls and women are easy targets for traffickers, unaware of the dangers that lurk behind promises of good employment. They are a living testimony to the link between lack of education and vulnerability. The OPTIONS program was implemented from 2004-2007 with the goal of reducing the number of children, especially girls, who fall victim to trafficking and exploitation. The immediate objective was to ensure that children, especially girls, removed from or at risk of trafficking and exploitation were educated in programs relevant to their needs. OPTIONS worked closely with community networks to identify children who are at risk and provided them with support in formal and nonformal interventions appropriate to their individual needs. Building on the skills of four major partners - World Education, CARE International, The Asia Foundation, and Kampuchean Action for Primary Education - OPTIONS worked in three provinces: Prey Veng, Kompong Cham, Banteay Meanchey, and certain areas of Phnom Penh. The OPTIONS program was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor with additional support from the McKnight Foundation and UNICEF.
Read the following success story about the program: Using Education to Combat Child Trafficking in Cambodia
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Promoting Peace Education in the Casamance
After 10 years of civil conflict in the southern Casamance region of Senegal, a fragile stability has developed in a community that is ready to embrace peace. Communities that were once separated from each other and tied up in a violent conflict are again coming together to rebuild their villages, region and society. An important step in the rebuilding process occurs in schools where students in the Casamance have a need to better understand how to resolve conflicts and get along with one another in an atmosphere of openness and nonviolence.
The Peace Education program aims to teach peaceful means of cooperation, conflict resolution, and reconciliation to local primary school students and teachers while peace activities are organized within the larger community. Over a year and a half, World Education, funded by USAID, is creating a Peace Education course to be taught to students and faculty in 40 schools throughout the Casamance. In addition to the course, members of the local community will join with participating students and teachers in forming community-based peace committees that will plan and oversee various peace-related activities. The goal of this project is to introduce peaceful means of communication to members of the Casamance community, with an important focus on youth, as the area moves out of conflict and begins rebuilding.
Learn about World Education's previous peace education work in the report: Building Peace and Prosperity in the Casamance
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Rehabilitation of Children/Youth Affected by Armed Conflict
World Education has facilitated the reintegration and rehabilitation of children/youth formerly associated with armed forces & armed groups (CAAFAG) and children affected by armed conflict (CAAC) as per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2006. World Education has also monitored the management of arms and armies with support from the US Department of Labor and UNICEF. Since November 2007, World Education has identified over 1200 CAAFAG in eight districts, of which around 1,000 CAAFAG and another 450 vulnerable children have received or are receiving educational support to attend formal school, vocational training, and economic literacy support to start their own business initiatives. In addition, over 50 community-based groups and 10,000 community members have received orientations on social reintegration and support. Other services include food support, psychosocial counseling, formal community sensitizations and strengthened district and local-level child protection systems.
In this final phase, World Education will facilitate the provision of continued educational support to self-released CAAFAG and CAAC who need additional support to continue schooling, provide practical vocational support and/or income generation support for CAAFAG families.
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Resunga Mahila Project
In rural Nepal, women do not have access to credit from banks. If they borrow money from village moneylenders, they are forced to pay back the loan at unreasonably high interest rates. It is rare to hear of female community members saving money and investing those savings into livelihoods improvement because there is no mechanism for them to do so at the local level, especially in remote areas where there is little access to local markets and services.
In Nepal, "green roads" use environmentally friendly, labor-intensive construction techniques to build roads that link isolated, rural village development committees (VDCs) with district centers. In hill districts, green roads have been promoted for the development of secondary road systems to improve access to markets and services for remote VDCs. Green roads bring immediate economic benefits to communities along the road corridor. A skeletal network of "green roads" is being developed in Gulmi and Arghakhanchi Districts that will link the district centers to more remote VDCs. As part of this initiative, expansion of microfinance and economic education will be implemented to ensure that these new routes bring economic benefit to the families that surround them.
To take advantage of those benefits, World Education is working with its NGO partners in Gulmi and Arghakhanchi to reach older women with little or no literacy skills, while at the same time providing opportunities for women with limited formal education to receive relevant nonformal education. By using the Women's Economic Empowerment and Literacy (WEEL) package along the "green roads" corridors, women will increase their literacy skills, and especially their math skills, so that they are better prepared to participate in savings and credit groups and gain knowledge and skills for improving their livelihoods.
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Schools for Life Program
( - )
The Schools for Life Program, funded by USAID, will expand on the good practices and lessons learned from the 3 ½-year USAID-funded Educational Support for Children in Underserved Populations (ESCUP) Program. The project will continue to address the issues of access and quality of education for marginalized youth in Cambodia through improved school management and educational capacity. A school grant component will offer schools a choice of interventions appropriate to their context and need.
At the same time, World Education will develop a number of new life skills modules focused on workplace readiness and economic participation for youth, with the aim to increase the relevance of education for lower secondary students, thereby improving enrollment and retention through grade 9, where drop-out becomes increasingly commonplace. World Education will continue to work with Kampuchean Assistance to Primary Education (KAPE), and in close partnership with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. One of the goals for the Schools for Life Program is to demonstrate how school development can be facilitated through a decentralized approach that builds ownership and strengthens governance while promoting cost effective, locally appropriate interventions for scale up in Cambodia's schools.
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The Dandelion School
It is estimated that up to one quarter of a billion of China's population will move from rural areas to cities over the next twenty years to look for a better life. While migrant workers are increasingly becoming an indispensable work force in China's urban development, their children are adversely affected by this large-scale movement. In China, when individuals migrate away from their place of registration, often their birth village or district, they lose access to government-provided health services, housing, and their children are deprived of educational opportunities available to other children their age. Teenagers, in particular, who have been uprooted and live with their parents in precarious conditions in Beijing, have found it difficult to adjust to school and city life.
Recent data shows that there are at least 500,000 children of migrant workers in Beijing who are without state-provided educational opportunities. The Dandelion School, located in the southwest of Beijing, is the first certified middle school (grades 6-9) exclusively for children of migrant workers that provides accessible quality education for this group of vulnerable youth. The collaboration between the Dandelion School and World Education focuses on developing a holistic response to the learning needs of children of migrant workers through life skills education, teacher professional development trainings and capacity building of school administrative staff.
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Using Education to Combat Abusive Forms of Child Labor in India
Child labor, particularly those forms that endanger children's health and general well being, is common in rural India. In rural Andhra Pradesh (AP), where families are highly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, children, especially young girls (ages 8-15), are employed in the cotton seed industry. The girls -- many of whom work as bonded laborers returning loans given to their families by cotton farmers -- are often exposed to hazardous chemicals used on cotton, work long hours, and receive meager pay for their work. Many of the estimated 248,000 children employed in the cotton seed industry in AP are not attending school -- many have dropped out and almost a third have never attended.
World Education worked with a local NGO partner, Center for Applied Research and Extension (Care), that ran a school for girls rescued from the cotton seed industry. Project work focused on activities that included a basic health and nutrition plan; developing a locally relevant, life skills-centered curriculum; training of teachers and Care staff to implement the curriculum, developing follow-up programs for school graduates; designing a community outreach program to raise awareness about the hazards of child labor; and advocacy with local leaders and policymakers about education and child labor issues.
Read the following success story about the program: Helping Girls Protect Themselves in India
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