Udaipur: Educate Girls, a non-profit working in the most rural and remote villages of India to bridge the gender and literacy gaps through girls’ education, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Rajasthan’s DirectorateofWomenEmpowermentat Jaipur. Discussing the MoU, Shri KK Pathak, Secretary, Women and Child Development Department, Government of Rajasthan,said, “Awareness of education, skills and social concernsaretheimportantdimensionsofwomen’s empowerment.Based on these dimensions, there is a need to work on the ground level for theoveralldevelopmentofadolescentgirlsand women. With the MoU in place, we expect to tap immense opportunities for education and livelihood for adolescent girls and women at the grassroots.” Sharing the details of the MoU, Safeena Husain, Founder of Educate Girls, said, “With this collaboration,thegovernmentandEducate Girls can usher in behavioural, social and economic transformation in the society. It is a convergenceofevidence-basedpolicymakingand our proven technology backed model.”Adding more on the MoU’s implementation, she said, “We will be augmenting state-level resources forenhancingandhand-holdingsupporttocarryoutresearchandreviewstudies.EducateGirls will also empower and educate various stakeholders on girls’ education and converge with various institutions–governmentandnon-government for sustainable development of adolescentgirlsandwomen,transformingtheirlives and those of their families and communities.” ElaboratingontheMoU,Safeenasaid,“Under this MoU, Educate Girls’ will set up a statelevelProjectManagementandImplementation Unit (PMIU) that will work under an elite leadership council to deliver measurable goals as part of the multi-year partnership. The PMIU will play the role of capacity builder and ensure that the most marginalised communities get access to all government schemes.” For this project, Educate Girls’PMIU will work towards convergence of allwomen initiatives, providing aholisticapproachthatwillhelpwomenaccess various opportunities for education, skill development and livelihoods. It will also help them in understanding their political and legal rights. Educate Girls works closely with the Government and communities across Rajasthan,MadhyaPradeshandUttarPradesh, in those districts with maximum number of out of school girls. The non-profit partners with the Government to ensure that girls are enrolled and retained in schools and they learn well through Educate Girls’ remedial learning curriculum.Inthecomingyears,thenon-profitaims to expand its work to more educationally backward districts of Bihar.