The Sisters of Success (SOS) program supports girls’ transition into adolescence and adulthood. The SOS program’s primary goals are to reduce in-school girls’ likelihood of dropping out of school; to increase out-of-school girls’ likelihood of returning to school; and to reduce girls’ risky sexual behavior and likelihood of becoming pregnant as a minor. More broadly, the SOS program aims to help girls adopt healthy behaviors; build confidence and self-esteem; learn and practice their rights; begin to develop savings and financial literacy habits; increase their community participation and involvement; and work towards their own personal development goals.
The SOS program was implemented in Monrovia, Liberia, by IRC and two local organizations - EDUCARE and Planned Parenthood Association of Liberia (PPAL) - during 2014 and 2015. The program matched girls to mentors - approximately ten girls per mentor, and involved “Sisterhood Meetings” of two mentors and their respective mentees, twice a month over the course of 15 months, as well as some larger group extracurricular activities. Mentors are women from the community that are 18 or older, secondary school graduates, who volunteered to become mentors.
The baseline data will be used jointly with an endline dataset to evaluate the impact of the Sisters of Success program.