Ethiopia Scouts Association to Launch a Girl Empowerment Project in Partnership with SIDA

ADDIS ABABA - February 11, 2015 will be the day for the official launching of a two-year long project in partnership with SIDA: Initiative Africa. The launch of the project titled ‘SCOUTS: Building a Lifetime of Skills and Confidence’ will be hosted in Debwre Birhan town, Amhara Region, in Ethiopia. 65 participants from seven regions of the country among them representatives of the project stakeholders namely; Regional Education Bureau, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Children, Women and Youth will be in attendance. Following the launch will be a four-days Training for Trainers which is expected to bring together 40 Scout leaders.

The purpose of this two-year project is; supporting girls in high school to overcome bullying (awareness on violence against girls); entrepreneurship development for Scouts; supporting study habits among weak students using the Scout method-mainly the patrol system; reducing the high school drop-out rate of girl students due to early marriage and early job world entry.

Ultimately, the project seeks to make the Scouting programme accessible to every girl who wants to belong in 15 schools in 4 regions; help establish local support centers to get the Scout programme up and running in schools; and to promote the Scouting program to school administrators and the entire community.

With this project there will be more than 7,000 new troops of Junior, Regular and Rover Scouts, which will add to the Association’s targeted membership to 270,000 Scouts by 2020.