Adolescent Girls

Background

IHAO has put equality as a core value in its statement in access to health as well as other social and educational indicators with a focus on raising awareness on women and adolescents girls’ health. IHAO also has strong emphasis on empowering youth as the leader of tomorrow. Therefore; when UNFPA introduced the AG program for adolescent girls, IHAO responded immediately as it is a mandatory step for preparing women to be better leaders for tomorrow in all aspects of life.

WE WILL HELP THE PEOPLE TO RETURN BETTER THAN PREVIOUS

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Objectives & Target

Main objectives  are:

  • Generate knowledge, data, and evidence on the needs of and varying impacts on adolescents girls to inform program design, track progress, and document lessons on girls’ programming.
  • Promote adolescent girl friendly SRH services and specialized GBV services.
  • Increase adolescent girls’ access to appropriate sexual and reproductive health services, specialized GBV services, and empowerment activities.
  • Engage with other actors to ensure needs and considerations of adolescent girls are part of response / Target: education child protection and another sector.
  • Encouraging the participation and leadership of marginalized girls through a variety of programs, including Action for Adolescent Girls. This initiative will help in connecting girls to resources and opportunities and builds their agency so that they can protect themselves. Encouraging the girls to participate in community conversations, voicing their concerns and ideas about issues affecting them. To be emerged like many idols as champions in their communities, speaking out against harmful practices such as child marriage, and advocating for human rights.

Target Group:

Covering a broad range of beneficiaries among the Adolescent Girls aging 10-19 years old in IRAQ’s governorates, including IDPs, refugees, returnees, host communities and those who remained in their homes during and after military operations in IRAQ’s governorates to facilitate support to the most vulnerable persons. These groups include survivors of violence, child marriage, widows, adolescents’ pregnancy, child-headed households, unaccompanied and separated children, stateless persons, people with special needs, girls and women suffering discrimination and marginalization, girls and women who are sexually abused or forced to commit sexual abuse, and LGBTI individuals.

Achievements

Under the support of UNFPA-Iraq, IHAO is currently implementing the Adolescent Girls project in Iraq.

Iraqi Children Foundation

Through funding from ICF, IHAO expanded its services in Al-Qawsiyat, Ninewa.

Al-Qawsiyat centre offers services for adolescent girls protection including Gender-Based Violence combatting services, awareness raising sessions on issues such as early marriage, forced marriage, the importance of education, emotional regulation and self-confidence. Other services provided by the centre include psychosocial support in the form of individual and group sessions, and emotional support through workshops such as self-expression through art, embroidery for improved concentration and attention span, as well as sports sessions learning volleyball, gymnastics and boosting physical fitness, educational services are also offered in the non-formal form as English language support skills, and Arabic literacy sessions.

Workshops (computer learning skills and digital literacy) take place in the centre teaching girls how to learn safe use of media and protect themselves against cyber bullying and Technology facilitated violence, as well as ways of seeking help.

In addition, the centre offers entertainment services that aim to restore social cohesion, tolerance, and a sense of stability and peace between different societal groups of host communities, returnees and IDPs in Mosul.

The total number of beneficiaries in 2021 was 550 adolescent girls.

Another project funded through ICF, involves the rehabilitation and support of Al-Waleed School in Tal Banat, Sinjar, Ninewa Governorate.

After all the events that have wrecked through Ninewa Governorate in the recent years, Tal Banat village was left with only one school, this led to the school being overloaded with a large number of students that was previously shared by three schools.

Recognizing the dire need for less crowded learning spaces, IHAO, funded by ICF, began rehabilitation of the school, aiming to provide a better quality of education to the children in the area.

The newly rehabilitated school has a capacity of about 400 students, and works by the elementary and secondary system (9 grades). After the start of the new school year in 2021, IHAO continued supporting Al-Waleed school through the distribution of stationery to students attending the school.