Providing new opportunities to adolescent girls in socially conservative settings: The Ishraq program in rural Upper Egypt

International understanding of how poverty is transmitted recognizes the role of gender-based inequalities. Policies and programs for young girls are improving child survival rates and school attendance. Livelihood opportunities and reproductive health services are now standard tools for reaching women of reproductive age. But the international community has lagged behind in its understanding of adolescence as a pivotal time for girls during which effective programs could make up for childhood deficits and launch young women toward healthy empowered adulthood. In Egypt national investments in education and health services now reach most young children and the gender gap in primary school enrollment is closing. Laudable efforts to create school places for all children ages seven to ten are making great progress. But they come too late for those adolescent girls who were kept from school by poverty and other obstacles. Most of these girls are concentrated in the poorest villages of Upper Egypt. They face a bleak future that will replicate the poverty and disadvantage of their own families. (excerpt)