Celebrating the Girl's Advocacy Alliance in Asia
Five years ago, the Girls Advocacy Alliance (GAA) programme was launched with the primary goal of ensuring that girls and young women in ten countries in Asia and Africa would no longer face gender-based violence and economic exclusion. With its recent closure in the end of 2020, we look back on the programme's achievements in the Asia region through stories of change and progress towards a better environment for girls.
Bangladesh
GAA's goal in Bangladesh was to address gender based violence - in the form of child trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation, and child marriage. The project was implemented by TdH-NL and Plan International Bangladesh. TdH-NL worked with various local partner organisations on different issues such as INCIDIN Bangladesh, to combat child trafficking and Ain o Salish Kendra, to combat online sexual abuse.
India
GAA in India focuses on addressing and fighting the rising violence against adolescent girls and young women through lobby and advocacy. TdH-NL empower girls and the young women by
advocating for the prevention of child marriage and child trafficking along with the promotion of secondary education & job oriented vocational training.
TdH-NL in India worked in six districts across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with six partner organisations implementing the project at the grassroots; HELP (lead partner in Andhra Pradesh) in Prakasam district and the state headquarters Vijayawada; RAIDS in Kadapa district, HANDS in Anantapur district; SVK (lead partner in Telangana) in the state headquarters, Hyderabad and Nagarkurnool district; SCOPE RD in the district of Khammam and FMMSS in Warangal.
TdH-NL also advocate with Community Religious Leaders, Civil Society Organisations, Government & Law Enforcement Agencies and the Private Sector. We also train young girls and boys as advocates.
Philippines
In the Philippines, the GAA programme focused on many areas such as gender equality, economic empowerment, lobbying for laws, eliminating gender violence, and providing opportunities to the vulnerable. These initiatives were done in Cebu Province, Eastern Visayas, Central Luzon, and Metro Manila.
One of TdH-NL's partner organisation, Bidlisiw focused on engaging the private sector to provide opportunities such as training and employment to girls and young women at risks or a victim of exploitation.