Collaborating with the Private Sector to expand services available to Girls and Young Women for the disruption of HIV causal pathways.
The USAID supported Re-ignite, Innovate, Sustain, Empower (RISE) Adolescent Girls and Young Women Program has made significant progress in engaging vulnerable young women along with their parents, community, government and the private sector. Private sector engagement has expanded the services available to girls and young women to empower them to reach their full potential. The private sector has complemented the HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health package that the RISE Program provides to vulnerable girls by contributing towards building their skills, assets, and competences to earn a decent wage.
Through its partnership with Next Generation Consulting, the RISE Program successfully trained 20 vulnerable young women to become clothes manufacturers. Next Generation Consulting supplies high end services to large retailers in the country. Next Generation Consulting conducted a monthlong training on theory of garment making. After completing this theoretical component, the girls were taken through a 3-month industrial on-job training. The 4-month
Next Generation Consulting training was followed by a 3-month internship with various private sector players. 17 determined young women successfully completed this course. This exposure to full clothing production line has imparted the critical technical skills for girls to have successful careers or enterprises in the clothing manufacturing sector. The RISE Program Economic Strengthening interventions prepare and support girls to pursue either employability or entrepreneurship pathways, depending on their goals.
The RISE Program, with the support of the American taxpayers, is strengthening and scaling up its partnership with the private sector to continue to innovate, diversify and expand the basket of sustainable and impactful HIV Prevention services available to vulnerable girls and young women.
“I always had a passion for tailoring but didn’t know where to start as I wasn’t financially capable of undertaking the course. I would like to thank the RISE program for giving me this opportunity and I would like to put it on record that, with me being trained, my whole family has benefitted as I am now able to contribute to the upkeep of the family,” joyfully explained Pamela, one of the girls from the training.
