EMpower connects global resources with local solutions so that young people can create bold, transformative change in their lives and communities.
Learn About What We DoEMpower’s Building Bridges learning exchange series, The Compassionate Counselling Program began as the first concrete step to address mental health concerns during the pandemic and equip field staff in organizations with relevant counselling skills to reach communities with mindfulness and compassion.
Read More Here!The first grants meeting of the fiscal year took place in the UK on 3 December.
Read More Here!A letter by Miche Williams from EMpower grantee partner BRAVE as part of EMpower’s #16Days16Ways campaign against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and intended to highlight the unique approaches of our grantee partners in addressing GBV.
Read More Here!EMpower’s East and South East Asia Programs team organized a two-webinar series ‘Bring Programs Online’ with 10 grantee partners throughout the region. These webinars provided a space for partners to share their online tools, best practices, and learnings from shifting to virtual programming.
Read More Here!We are thrilled to have attained the coveted 4-star rating for demonstrating strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency!
Read More Here!For 20 years, we have worked alongside local organisations and young people to advance innovative programming and best practices to enable youth to live their full potential.
Grants Made
Awarded
Youth Directly Impacted
Lives Touched
There are more than 1.8 billion young people in the world and many emerging market countries are experiencing the largest ever population of young people, with expectations of continued growth until 2030. Already affected by significant poverty, discrimination, violence and exclusion, young people at the margins in 2020-21 face the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 with its toll on schooling, health, safety, and livelihoods. Our support to local partners aims to create more opportunities, assets, networks and brave spaces for young people. EMpower provides financial grants and other value-add support to local organisations in emerging market countries in three interconnected areas that are key to youth development:
With partnership at the heart of our work, EMpower learns from and with our partners, leveraging and sharing learnings from our 100 active grantee partners in 15 EM countries.
Featured Grantee Partner
Located in the town of Pisac, in the Cusco region of Peru, Kusi Kawsay was founded by five indigenous families that were frustrated with the discrimination students of indigenous descent faced in the public-school system. Kusi Kawsay runs a school that promotes access to intercultural, bilingual and quality education to indigenous youth using an alternative educational model that preserves and honors their heritage. To address high rates of adolescent pregnancy, and increased gender-based violence due to COVID, EMpower’s funding enables Kusi Kawsay to provide comprehensive sexuality education and gender equity training to indigenous young people.
With schools closed due to the pandemic, Kusi Kawsay, like many of our grantee partners, had to switch to online education. They integrated topics relating to the pandemic into the gender-equity course, including dialogues on mental health, economic challenges, and gender inequalities that COVID has exacerbated. As part of their final project, young people developed artistic campaigns, through video, paintings, and music, to raise awareness on and address gender inequities.
“During the pandemic, cases of domestic violence have increased. With this campaign, I want to empower the young women and girls of Peru to report violence and to be heard.” Milagros, 13
A new EMpower research report in English, Hindi and Spanish highlights the importance of focusing on very young adolescent girls (ages 10-14) both in programming and funding.
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