Partners: UNICEF & Govt. of Punjab (2009- 2012)
Location: Lahore, Kasur and DG Khan Districts
The Young Champions Project for Girls’ Education was initiated in Punjab to enroll and retain out of school and marginalized children, especially girls into schools. The project was implemented in 29 Union Councils (UC) of Lahore, 29 UCs of Kasur and 15 UCs of DG Khan. The project envisaged selecting young and educated teenagers, both girls and boys as volunteers from the community, developing them as “young champions for education” and motivating them to help in identifying and enrolling out of school and marginalized children in their neighborhoods and communities thus achieving the MDG and EFA goals for education. The project has been extremely successful as not only thousands of out of school and arginalized children were enrolled into schools but young champions in each eighborhood were equipped with necessary skills like communication, networking, community mobilization techniques, peer to peer education and computer skills.