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Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) – Cohort 3

Education

The Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative uses action research to develop tailored models to address barriers to education, retention and learning for extremely marginalized adolescent girls.

Background

The Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative was designed to support marginalized girls who face multiple social and economic barriers to attending school. These include girls from ethnic minorities or excluded castes; slum dwellers; girls at high risk of sexual exploitation, early marriage, and other forms of gender-based violence; the extremely poor; adolescent migrants; and rural girls in areas severely affected by climate change.

Intervention

PCTFI supports both students and out-of-school girls through a combination of increased access to formal and non-formal education; training on gender-equitable, inclusive, and relevant teaching methodologies; improved access to sexual and reproductive health information; platforms to develop girls’ leadership skills; training on financial literacy and savings; and use of technological tools. Through these interventions, PCTFI is directly expanding opportunities for more than 134,000 girls and women and indirectly benefiting another 346,000 girls, as well as more than 274,000 boys and men.

The project’s models integrate components of education, gender, sexual and reproductive health, economic empowerment, and access to information technology to expand girls’ opportunities to learn and experience positive transitions into adulthood.

Project achievements

In Rwanda, PCTFI worked with 4,000 adolescent savings groups, increasing the proportion of girls able to save money from 28% to 69% within the first 12 months. Students who were able to save were 12 percentage points less likely to drop out of school and 18 percentage points more likely to attend class.

of girls able to save money prior to PCTFI

of girls able to save money prior to PCTFI

Source: Laterite (2019) Safe Schools for Girls Project: Midline Evaluation Report.

of girls able to save money after PCTFI

of girls able to save money after PCTFI

Source: Laterite (2019) Safe Schools for Girls Project: Midline Evaluation Report.

In Nepal, PCTFI implemented an accelerated learning course to help girls who had never attended school attain the equivalent of a Grade 4 education. At the end of an 11-month period, 88% of the participants had learned to read and 82% had acquired basic numeracy skills.

had acquired basic numeracy skills after 11 months

had acquired basic numeracy skills after 11 months

Source: Project monitoring data – 4th round of ASER assessments 

participants had learned to read after 11 months

participants had learned to read after 11 months

Source: Project monitoring data – 4th round of ASER assessments 

The importance of PCTFI

Extremely marginalized girls face compounded barriers to enrolling in school, learning, and using their skills for positive transitions. PCTFI provides a unique opportunity to test the effectiveness of integrated models, using a highly tailored and adaptive approach.  

Featured resources

Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative: Leadership & Life Skills

Since 2003, CARE has implemented the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) to improve access to and quality of education for marginalized girls across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In 2015, CARE expanded PCTFI to a third cohort of countries reaching marginalized adolescents, particularly girls, (aged 10-19) in seven countries: Cambodia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and India. This report outlines learning from this multi-country initiative from the leadership and life skills related activities.

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Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) – Cohort 3

The Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative uses action research to develop tailored models to address barriers to education, retention, and learning for extremely marginalized adolescent girls.

Read More

Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative: Gender Integration, Gender-based Violence (GBV) Prevention, and Social Norms Change

Since 2003, CARE has implemented the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) to improve access to and quality of education for marginalized girls across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In 2015, CARE expanded PCTFI to a third cohort of countries reaching marginalized adolescents, particularly girls, (aged 10-19) in seven countries: Cambodia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and India. This report outlines learning from this multi-country initiative activities relating to Gender Integration, Gender-based Violence (GBV) prevention, and social norms change

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Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative – Adolescent Led Advocacy

Since 2003, CARE has implemented the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) to improve access to and quality of education for marginalized girls across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In 2015, CARE expanded PCTFI to a third cohort of countries reaching marginalized adolescents, particularly girls, (aged 10-19) in seven countries: Cambodia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and India. This report outlines learning from this multi-country initiative regarding the adolescent-led advocacy activities.

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Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative: Linking Saving Groups to Adolescents Boys and Girls Economic Empowerment and Education

Since 2003, CARE has implemented the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) to improve access to and quality of education for marginalized girls across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In 2015, CARE expanded PCTFI to a third cohort of countries reaching marginalized adolescents, particularly girls, (aged 10-19) in seven countries: Cambodia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and India. This report outlines the learning this multi-country initiative's activities relating to adolescents boys and girls economic empowerment and education.

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Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative: Learnings from Integrating Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR)

Since 2003, CARE has implemented the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) to improve access to and quality of education for marginalized girls across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In 2015, CARE expanded PCTFI to a third cohort of countries reaching marginalized adolescents, particularly girls, (aged 10-19) in seven countries: Cambodia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and India. This report outlines the learning relating to ASRHR activities from this multi-country initiative.

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Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative: Adolescent Economic Empowerment

Since 2003, CARE has implemented the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) to improve access to and quality of education for marginalized girls across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In 2015, CARE expanded PCTFI to a third cohort of countries reaching marginalized adolescents, particularly girls, (aged 10-19) in seven countries: Cambodia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and India. This report outlines the impact of this multi-country initiative on adolescent economic empowerment.

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Challenges and Lessons Learned around Cross-Sectoral Programming from the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative

This report outlines the challenges and lessons learned around cross-sectoral programming from the Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative cohort-3

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CARE Rwanda Safe Schools for Girls – Technical Brief

CARE Rwanda's Safe Schools for Girls in an innovative approach towards improving school retention among adolescent girls in Rwanda.

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Youth Economic Empowerment as Explored Through PCTFI Cohort 3 – Technical Brief

Building upon CARE’s Leadership Development Framework, PCTFI provides unique opportunities for children and adolescents to develop leadership skills, make healthy decisions, and work towards achieving their self-described goals.

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The Power of Partnerships and Holistic Models on Adolescent Empowerment

This report for UKFEIT Conference reviews what's been learned through PCTFI about the lived experiences of adolescents and their communities that has informed approaches to improving learning and empowerment.

Read the UKFIET Presentation

Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative: Adolescent Economic Empowerment

This report outlines the impact of the multi-country Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) initiative on adolescent economic empowerment.

Read More