Central America – Indigenous Girls – Abriendo Oportunidades (“Opening Opportunities”)

http://www.popcouncil.org/research/abriendo-oportunidades-opening-opportunities

Abriendo Oportunidades provides vulnerable Mayan girls in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico with skills and support to improve their lives.

Photo Credit: Mark Tuschman

The Issue

The vast majority of indigenous Mayans are poor. Most live in isolated rural areas with limited access to water, sanitation, passable roads, schooling, and health care. Mayan girls are particularly disadvantaged. They generally marry early and drop out of school.

The Progress

The Population Council, in collaboration with local and international partners, launched Abriendo Oportunidades in Guatemala in 2004. The program increases Mayan girls’ social support networks, connects them with role models and mentors, builds a base of critical life and leadership skills, and provides hands-on professional training and experience.

Abriendo Oportunidades makes critical investments in girls aged 8–19 to help them successfully navigate adolescent transitions. The program engages community leaders and trains girls to run community girls’ clubs, safe spaces where they learn practical skills and assume leadership roles.

The program began in a handful of rural communities in Guatemala and has since expanded nationwide, as well as to Belize and Mexico (where the program is called Abriendo Futuros). The Council trains professionals from local governments and organizations in program planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation to ensure high-quality programs for vulnerable adolescent girls. The program has expanded to include tutoring and is now being adapted for girls in urban areas and for boys. The program is also working with partners in the Central American Learning Circle to promote and adapt the Abriendo Oportunidades model for other vulnerable girl populations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The Impact

Since 2004, the program has reached 8,000 girls in 100 communities and built a network of 100 young indigenous mentors. Countless others have benefited from the effects of the program in their communities.

A 2007 program evaluation showed that:

• 100% of Abriendo girl leaders had completed the sixth grade, compared with 82% nationally.
• 97% of Abriendo girl leaders remained childless during the program cycle, compared with the national average of 78% for girls their age.
• 94% of Abriendo girl leaders reported experiencing greater autonomy and feeling more comfortable expressing their opinions.
• 88% of girl leaders opened a bank account.
• 44% had obtained paid employment by the end of the program.

A quantitative household-level evaluation conducted in 36 Abriendo Oportunidades communities in 2011 documented that:

• 52% of Abriendo girl leaders want to complete university and 32% want to complete vocational training.
• 97% of Abriendo girl leaders remained unmarried during the program cycle.
• 94% of Abriendo girl leaders wish to delay childbearing until after age 20.
• Abriendo girls interviewed at endline scored an average of 7.7 on an 8-point scale to quantify their sense of self-efficacy, indicating that post-program rural, indigenous girls may well possess the self-confidence necessary to follow their articulated life plans.

Girl participants report that the Abriendo Oportunidades program has also helped to bring about positive social change in the local households and communities, including:

• *increased female autonomy reflected in parental permission for girls to attend Abriendo events;
• *increased freedom to meet with friends; and
• *improved status in the home and participation in school and community activities.

The Population Council is conducting a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of Abriendo Oportunidades on school attendance and retention in Guatemala. Results are expected in 2017.