Mercy Corps

Established in 1979, Mercy Corps is an international nonprofit dedicated to alleviating suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. A previous Foundation award enabled Mercy Corps to train 1800 marginalized female junior and senior students in financial literacy and labour market skills using the Nigerian Central Bank’s (The Bank) financial literacy program. Training took place in 13 Government and Islamiyyah secondary schools located in Kano state. The Bank’s financial literacy program is a national economic empowerment program to improve life opportunities for adolescents. By scaling the financial literacy and work readiness trainings through partnership with state government and educational agencies, this award enables Mercy Corps to institutionalize teaching approaches in financial literacy and career guidance. Mercy Corps focuses on (1) building partnerships with state ministry of education and relevant agencies in Kano; (2) training officials on gender-based programming, (3) training teachers on academic and financial literacy curricula; and (4) strengthening the government system to support girls’ skill building in alignment with the National Policy on Education.

Mercy Corps in an international non-governmental organization working to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. Mercy Corps’ GOAL project will help girls acquire the skills they need to enable them to enter the labor force by testing a model that will use school-based safe-spaces to strengthen core skills; mainstream relevant financial education into the Kano State education system; and enable girls to build economic assets through savings and direct links to employment opportunities upon graduation.

In support of a project entitled, Livelihoods Recovery in Earthquake-Affected Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan.