FINAL REPORT: DEMOCRACY SMALL GRANT FOR Al-

UNCLAS SANAA 000098 SIPDIS FOR NEA/PPD:DMACINNES AND JDAVIES, NEA/RA:BKEARY, NEA/ARP: MMILLER, NEA/PPD: TROBERTS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM KPAO AFIN KWMN PHUM YM DEMOCRATIC REFORM HUMAN RIGHTS SUBJECT: FINAL REPORT: DEMOCRACY SMALL GRANT FOR Al- MARA'WA SOCIAL AND HELATH ASSOCIATION REF: A) STATE 187026 B) SANAA 5295 ¶1. Al-Mara'wa Social and Health Association has concluded its project titled "Girls' Education: Awareness and Advocacy Program". The Association conducted two workshops in ten selected rural areas with dense population in Al-Marawa district in accordance with the terms of their Democracy Small Grant. ¶2. PAO and PAS attended the opening ceremony of the first workshop conducted on August 13, 03. Representatives from the Ministry of Education, local council, district mangers, social figures and parents attended the opening session. ¶3. PAS made a monitoring visit and met with the NGO's head in Hodida Governorate who explained the project's progress in the selected villages. The mobile awareness workshops were moving from one village to another to talk to parents, and social leaders encouraging girl's education and discussing existing obstacles in the rural areas. ¶4. PAS traveled with the NGO's head to Al-Ashaarya village to attend an awareness session. Two of the speakers at the session were a member of the local council in the district and the General Manager of the Education Office. The Education General Manager talked about the importance of girl's education and the efforts of the Education Office in the area to provide female teachers and locate girl schools in the district. The audiences were parents and leaders in the community who discussed obstacles to girls' education in the district and ways to move forward. ¶5. PAS observation on the awareness session is that it was very necessary but it has little effect on the current reality. From the debates in the session, PAS sensed that these communities feel so isolated and abandoned and their motivation and enthusiasm is at a low level. So even though the awareness session was a good opportunity to engage parents in a healthy debate and help them realize the importance of girls education, more collective efforts need to be made in terms of building girls schools and providing female teachers in order to increase girls enrollment in schools. ¶6. Outcome: Strengths Workshops reached the selected villages and received a positive welcome from the community. Parents expressed their enthusiasm about participating in awareness programs in rural areas where it is much needed. Participants acknowledged their dire need for more workshops at the governorate levels as they gain knowledge and touch upon very important and current issues facing women. ¶7. Weaknesses: The awareness program was much needed in the rural areas where little efforts are made to increase girls' enrollment in schools; however, the program has little impact for the long term. The NGO's effort to tackle the issue alone shows a good commitment, yet the magnitude of the problem needs serious collective efforts from government, community and the civil society. Some of the selected speakers were adequate but not engaging; therefore some sessions were not as well attended as others. In some of the visited districts, there seemed to be a feeling of helplessness and passiveness among the community, so even though they attended the awareness session, they were skeptical of any changes happening in their community. HULL