SoFEA

July 26, 2015

Delaying marriage, educating the next generation

Every year millions of adolescent girls marry young in South Asia. They are burdened with responsibilities as young wives and teenage mothers. In most cases, girls are coerced into marriage in varying circumstances. Research indicates that child brides face greater physical violence and a number of health risks. However, evidence is also building up on another more serious consequence of early marriage.
March 21, 2013

BRAC celebrates Global Money Week in Bangladesh

BRAC's youth-focused programmes celebrated the Global Money Week in Bangladesh with three-day training on financial literacy for adolescents. The training was arranged by our 'Adolescent Development Programme' and 'Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescent (SoFEA)' programme. With an objective to empower the adolescent girls financially, the training's key focus-areas include, financial planning, savings, money management, budgeting and introduction to formal banking.
July 1, 2011

Christy Turlington: Back to Bangladesh – Day 3

Below is post from Christy Turlington Burns, founder of the non-profit organization, Every Mother Counts and Director/Producer of the documentary film "No Woman, No Cry". In this article, originally published on Huffington Post, Christy Turlington Burns writes about her experience of returning to Bangladesh for the first time since filming the segment on BRAC's Manoshi project aimed at improving maternal health in the slums of Dhaka. We started our day at Dhaka Medical College's teaching hospital where we learned more about one of the most common pregnancy-related morbidities (or disabilities) that poor women endure in childbirth; obstetric fistula. An obstetric fistula is when a woman suffers an obstructed labor, ultimately tearing a hole in her birth canal. Fistulas lead to incontinence of urine, feces and often cause infertility. Equally as devastating is that most women with fistulas are ostracized by their families and communities.
June 28, 2010

BRAC’s SoFEA girls have big dreams

Below is a post written by Kevin McCaffrey after visiting BRAC's SoFEA program for adolescent girls in Bangladesh.  In May, Kevin and his staff came to conduct a creative writing workshop with one of the girls' clubs.  Results from the workshop will be developed into a children's book, with some of the proceeds from the book sales benefiting BRAC.