Creating Opportunities and Preventing Migration of Unaccompanied Girls Boys and Adolescents

The project aims to prevent children and youth from undertaking unaccompanied migration from two communities in Honduras where poverty and widespread violence prevail. The project is designed to help protect vulnerable young adolescents (between the age of 10 and 14) from violence including sexual and gender-based violence and to increase economic opportunities for older adolescents (between the age of 15 and 19) who are at-risk of migrating with a particular focus on girls. Project activities include: (1) creating local clubs for adolescents where social emotional competencies and self-protection training and awareness activities are offered; (2) providing training for schools communities and families on gender equality including positive and equitable relationships; (3) providing market-oriented vocational and entrepreneurship training and developing transferrable life skills for older adolescents including self-control self-esteem motivation and job-seeking skills; (4) sharing the project’s successes and lessons learned with governments and civil society to contribute to the design of gender-sensitive policies and programs that prevent the unaccompanied migration of girls boys and adolescents. The project is part of a regional initiative implemented in the Northern Triangle countries (Honduras El Salvador Guatemala) co-funded by the governments of Mexico and Germany

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved self-protective behaviours and positive gender equitable relationships among vulnerable female and male young adolescents (10-14) to reduce the risk of sexual and gender-based violence in targeted communities; (2) increased economic opportunities based on gender-differentiated needs of female and male older adolescents (15-19) at risk of migration in targeted communities; and (3) improved integration of gender equality and evidence base practices into policies to prevent the unaccompanied migration of girls boys and adolescents from Honduras.