Educate Girls is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, established in 2007, founded by

Safeena Husain Safeena Husain is a social worker and founder of Educate Girls – a non-profit organisation that is headquartered in Mumbai, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-large ...

, that works towards girls' education in

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

and educationally backward areas by mobilising communities.Educate Girls: Official Impact Numbers
Educate Girls, 2014 It currently operates in over 13,000 villages in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

and

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

.How India’s First Development Impact Bond Transformed the Lives of over 7000 Rural Kids
/ref> By leveraging the Government's existing investment in schools and by engaging with a huge base of community volunteers, Educate Girls helps to identify, enrol and retain out-of-school girls and to improve

foundational skills Foundationalism concerns philosophical theories of knowledge resting upon non-inferential justified belief, or some secure foundation of certainty such as a conclusion inferred from a basis of sound premises.Simon Blackburn, ''The Oxford Dictio ...

in literacy and numeracy for all children (both girls and boys). Since its inception in 2007, the organization has reached over 6.7 million total beneficiaries, and has helped mobilise communities to enrol close to 380,000 out-of-school girls in school.

Executive summary

Educate Girls is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that promotes and supports girls' education in the remotest and rural and educationally backward part of

. It works in partnership with the Government of India and operates in 18,000 villages of

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

and engages with a huge base of community volunteers and in the process helps to identify, enroll, retain out-of-school girls and improve foundational skills in literacy and numeracy for all children. The organisation had announced in 2020 as its selection in list of HundrED 2021 Global Collection organised by Internationally renowned

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

-based global not for profit education HundrED which discovers, researches, and shares inspiring innovations in K12 education, and is an annual Global Collection highlighting 100 of the most impactful innovations in K12 education from around the world and Educate Girls' innovation was reviewed by 150 Academy members consisting of academics, educators, innovators, funders and leaders from over 50 countries. Educate Girls creates

community ownership Community-Managed assets or organizations are those that are owned and controlled through some representative mechanisms that allow a community to influence their operation or use and to enjoy the benefits arising. Benefits of ownership in infrast ...

to help communities to prioritize girls' education. The model includes the following elements: Safeena Hussain had been born and brought up in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

and holds a B.S. from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

and was always been committed to girls' education in India and abroad and has worked extensively in this area even in the third-world countries of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and had also been elected as one of the Asia 21 Young Leaders by the Asia Society.

Facilitating community ownership through team Balika

Educate Girls has over 13,000 Team Balika (community volunteers) who work as champions for girls' education in their respective villages. Team Balika members work with Government schools as well as village communities to spread awareness on girl child education. Team Balika are trained in community mobilization and outreach (door-to-door surveys, enrolment activities, conducting community meetings), learning curriculum (GKP) implementation,

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

and motivation. They are mostly between the ages of 18 and 30 and are often among the most educated members of their communities. Each Team Balika is given continuous training and hand-holding by Educate Girls throughout the year to facilitate their efforts.

Increasing girls' enrolment

After using existing Government data and door-to-door surveys (conducted by Educate Girls) to identify out-of-school girls in the area, responsibility is then distributed between the village leaders, elders, school administration, Team Balika and Educate Girls' staff to bring girls back to school. This often involves going door-to-door to convince parents to send their girls to school and rallying the community through Gram Shiksha Sabha's and Mohalla Meetings.

Supporting school administration

At village meetings a 15-member council is elected to form the School Management Committee (SMC). This consists of parents,

teachers A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. wh ...

and village leaders and is responsible for school governance and administration. Educate Girls handholds the committee members and provides them with support to prepare and execute School Improvement Plans (SIPs) and conduct school assessments.

Improving learning outcomes

Educate Girls trains its Team Balika (community volunteers) to implement a remedial learning curriculum, with the use of specially designed kits, called Gyan ka Pitara (GKP).Educating The Girl Child In India
10 October, 2018 The learning tools focus on building micro-competencies in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and Math for children in Grades 3, 4 and 5. The GKP accounts for the needs of marginalised children and uses interactive tools, activities and games, and worksheets for individual children in the classroom, ensuring that no child is left behind. Tests are conducted before and after curriculum implementation to assess learning levels.

Creation of girl leaders

Educate Girls facilitates the election of Bal Sabhas (Girls' Councils) in every upper primary school. This 13-member council gives girls a leadership position within the school and training in

life skills Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable humans to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. This concept is also termed as psychosocial competency. The subject varies greatly depending on social nor ...

to boost communication, leadership and problem solving skills.

History

A small local team, led by

, conducted the initial test project in 50 schools of Pali district in

. This 50-school project was launched under the umbrella of the Rajasthan Education Initiative (REI). The initiative started with 500 schools in 2008 to over 4,425 schools in 2013, with an aim to promote girls' education in rural Rajasthan and Safeena designed a sustainable model where the whole community works hand in hand to enroll girls into government schools and the initiative became successful due to community involvement. After successful completion of the test phase, the organization was independently registered in 2007 and won government approval to start a pilot project in 500 schools in 2008, working with 70,000 children in the Bali, Sumerpur and Rani blocks of Pali district with the cooperation and support extended by partners like

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

Pratham Pratham is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India. It was co-founded by Madhav Chavan anFarida Lambay. It works towards the provision of quality education to the underprivileged children in India. Established in Mumbai in ...

Rajasthan, SERVE and Dream Catchers Foundation. In 2017, the organisation working to provide the social impact of the Development Impact Bond (DIB), received £238,000 in capital from the UBS Optimus Foundation in order to deliver its objectives. The Educate Girls Development Impact Bond is a performance-based structure where The service provider (Educate Girls) delivers social impact to a targeted population, the investor (UBS Optimus) who provides the upfront working capital required for the implementation of the project and the outcome payer (The Children's Investment Trust) pays the investor on the success of the project against an agreed impact evaluation metrics.

Area of work

With community mobilization and sustainability as the guiding parameters, the

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

aims to: * Enhance enrollment and retention of girls through individual tracking, community mobilization and quality improvement. * Reduce gender disparity in schools and project areas, and improve the level of life skills and competency of the girl. * Ensure increased participation of children, families and communities in plans and actions for holistic education.

Impact

* Over 380,000 girls brought back to school. * 90% girls' retention. * 150,000 active girl leaders. * Over 13,000 active Team Balika members. * 6.7 total beneficiaries. * Launched world's first DIB ( Development Impact Bond) in the education sector with UBS Optimus Foundation and CIFF which on its completion in 2018, surpassed both its target outcomes. Since 2007 Educate Girl had enrolled over 750,000 girls in schools and improving learning outcomes for over 1.3 million children and they are well-known for the world's first Development Impact Bond and becoming the first Audacious Project in

Recognition

Educate Girls has received the following awards: * Dasra Village Capital award in 2010. * 3rd EdelGive Social Social Innovation Honors 2011. * The

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

's India Development Marketplace award in 2011. * Millennium Alliance Award, 2014. * WISE Award for innovation in Education, 2014. * Stars Impact Award 2014. *

's Most Ethical Companies Award 2015. * Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship 2015 – to Safeena Husain. * Nasscom Foundation Social Innovation Award 2016. * NDTV-L'Oréal

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Women of Worth Award 2016 – to Safeena Husain. * ET Prime Women Leadership Award 2019 – to Safeena Husain.

References

{{Reflist Organizations established in 2007 Children's rights organizations Educational organisations based in India Children's charities based in India Women's education in India