All Girls Foundation for Development empowers young people in Yemen, inspiring them to build a better future. The organisation works with young people to activate their role in social development through awareness raising, capacity building, and advocacy. In over ten years of work in various areas of development the organisation has reached over 34,000 people.
The organisation's objectives are:
- Increasing awareness of the girls education for short-term and long-term socio-economic development.
- Developing the academic orientation programs.
- Enhancing the capacity of young people and women in rural communities to actively engage in development decision-making.
- Strengthening institutional frameworks for youth's socio-economic, developmental and organisational initiatives.
Partners of the organisation include: Ministry of Education; Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation; OCHA; MEPI; CHF; OXFAM NOVIB; Marie Stopes International; UAE RED CRESCENT; IOM; CARE-UNFPA; Responsive Governance Program; and the US Embassy.
Activities
Education
The organisation's education programs encourage small families in target communities by supporting and sending their children to schools. It focuses on advocating equal access to boys and girls to basic education, and provides specific focus on girls education through a variety of interventions, and health education programs including reproductive health.
Part of their mandate is to provide orientation for secondary school graduates to make the right choice for their higher education studies that serves the public interest and also meets the market demands. The ambition is that this will contribute in the long run to bringing down the unemployment rate.
Youth empowerment
The organisation believes young people represent a dynamic force for change. They are the social segment that is responsible for the change movement taking place in Yemen. They come from different walks of life and different political and theological backgrounds. The need to empower these groups, mainly the girls, is critical. Therefore, the organisation's empowerment program is meant to build youth capacities in communication, advocacy campaigns, collective action, and general life skills.
There is a component to encourage young people in target communities to develop their own initiatives that could enhance their development role at the social and economic levels.
Institutional strengthening
The alignment between the institutional capacity and the level of effort needed to implement the program is a strategic priority for the organisation. They are working to enhance the internal system and develop the most effective and efficient work processes. This component includes developing operation manuals and guidelines and also communication strategies and implementation tools. Under this program there will be more focus on initiating some profit-making investments to help the organisation maintain some financial stability to cover its overhead.
Another part of this program is to provide systematic guidance to the youth and community initiatives. More and beyond, the organisation could provide some institutional capacity building to the community-based NGOs.
Recent activities
All Girls Foundation for Development are currently working to support low-income women and young people, especially craftswomen who are not able to get out of the house and work, by building their capacities in the production of extinct and endangered crafts.
Therefore, the foundation implemented a number of interventions, targeting the beneficiaries of the organisation's partners working in the field of handicrafts throughout the country by creating marketing outlets and opening new opportunities for them in domestic and external markets.
