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This year, we launched our GLOW Club program in La Paz, Bolivia, starting with an initial cohort of 30 highly vulnerable adolescent girls (ages 10 to 11), with the framework to support girls up through age 18. The primary objective of this project is to provide the vital "human infrastructure" and "scaffolding"â₀"the sustained mentorship, physical safety, and socio-emotional skillsâ₀"that adolescent girls in Bolivia urgently need to build their own futures.
While basic educational services may exist in these regions, girls face deep-seated structural barriers that limit their agency, voice, and power. Specifically, Bolivia experiences high adolescent fertility rates (approximately 64 live births per 1,000 girls), which frequently pull girls out of the education system permanently and lead to poorer long-term health and economic outcomes. Our objective is to close this "mentorship gap" so that girls do not fall through the cracks of the system.
To accomplish this, our project establishes GLOW Clubsâ₀"safe, after-school spaces that function as a "gym for leadership." Through a structured Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, girls meet weekly with rigorously trained local women mentors to build core competencies in self-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Furthermore, we have partnered with IPAS, an organization with over 25 years of experience advancing reproductive justice, to specifically strengthen the ability of these young women to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.
The direct beneficiaries of this project are the adolescent girls themselves, who receive the long-term support necessary to delay early pregnancy, advocate for their rights, and stay in school. Our model is proven to work: global data shows that 100% of girls in our advanced cohorts progress to the next academic grade level, outperforming national averages by up to 13.5%. Ultimately, the broader community also benefits, as these empowered girls grow into confident leaders who create a ripple effect of civic engagement, health improvement, and poverty alleviation throughout their region.
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