In celebration of International Women’s Day, the British Council organized an event to share the successes of its English and Digital for Girls’ Education (EDGE) programme with its stakeholders and representatives from organizations which work with a focus on girls and women’s empowerment.
The EDGE programme focuses on enhancing participants’ English proficiency, digital and 21st Century skills, and awareness of social issues. As a result, participants will be better able to make more informed and independent life choices, as is their right, in order to contribute more fully to the family, the economy, and society. In addition, the programme aims to improve the leadership skills of a smaller group of peer leaders drawn from the same communities of adolescent girls.
Since its inception in 2012, the EDGE programme has opened 364 after-school clubs and trained 799 peer group leaders to facilitate these clubs for over 8973 participants. The programme is being operated in nine districts (Manikganj, Tangail, Gaibandha, Bogra, Sylhet, Chittagong, Khulna, Narshingdi, and Mymensingh).
Nasima Begum ndc, Secretary, Ministry of Woman and Children Affairs, attended the celebration event as chief guest. David Ashley, Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission in Bangladesh was present as special guest. Barbara Wickham, Director, British Council was also present along with other eminent guests.
“Ensuring gender equality through educating and empowering women is an important part of our activities pertaining to cultural relations. The EDGE programme has proven highly effective in empowering women and girls in Bangladesh, and we are not only glad to share the success stories of the programme today, but also commit to continuing the programme in the future to yield more positive results,” Barbara Wickham said.
In 2012, the British Council launched this project in partnership with BRAC Bangladesh. English and Digital for Girls’ Education (EDGE) project aims to improve the life prospects of adolescent girls in socio-economically marginalised communities and has started operating in, India and Nepal.
