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| ELA CLUB IN MBAGALA |
By Friday Simbaya, recently in Dar e s Salaam
- IN response to the problems prevent adolescent girls in Tanzania from completing their education and fulfilling their dreams, BRAC Maendeleo Tanzania has launched an Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescent (ELA) project in 2013 through NOVO Foundation.
Teenage pregnancy is a major health concern because of its association with higher morbidity and mortality for both mother and child.
According to the Project Manager-ELA Nancy Kataraihya, childbearing during the teenage years frequently has adverse social consequences particularly for educational attainment.
BRAC’s ELA project is designed to socially and financially empower adolescent girls from poor households to overcome their vulnerabilities, and become agents of change in their family and community at large.
She said that girls who become mothers in their teens were more likely to curtail their education; she said this during the BRAC Maendeleo Tanzania Two-day Media Workshop held in Dar es Salaam early April this year.
The workshop brought a total of 35 journalists from Mbeya, Iringa, Dodoma, Tanga and Dar es Salaam regions organized by BRAC Maendeleo Tanzania.
Kataraihya said the project comprises of six (6) components including; adolescent girls club (safe-space) for both in and out of schools-where the adolescent girls need to discuss different socio-economic issues that touches their lives with confidentiality.
Life skills based education which builds self-confidence and practical skills for girls.
In Financial literacy component- the club members have the opportunity to get training about financial knowledge in business plan, capital management, marketing, customer service, profit and loss calculation, saving and record keeping.
Other components of the ELA project are livelihood training-where girls are trained in income generating activities (IGAs).
Community participation- includes all parent meetings and community leaders.
The sixth component is microfinance support-BRAC through Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescent (ELA) project provide small loan to adolescent girls who own business under ELA microfinance.
The ELA Project Manager said that one of the objectives of the project were to reduce early pregnancy, early marriage, to increase awareness on HIV/AIDS, STIs and other diseases.
The other objectives of the project were to intensify awareness on reproductive health and family planning (FP).
The ELA project has so far established 180 ELA clubs with total of 5,263 members, trained 180 mentors in four (4) regions and six (6) districts targeting adolescent girls aged 10+ to 24.
Over the years, BRAC has looked deeper into understanding the contextual problems of those members of the clubs face and worked to ensure different innovations are injected into the program to ensure sustainability as well as relevance of clubs in the community.
In Tanzania, if you are a schoolgirl and fall pregnant, it could mean the end of your education. This is drastic attempt to prevent pregnancies in the society where engaging in sex before marriage is seen as shameful, reckless and immoral.
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