Kampuchean Action to Promote Education (KAPE) is pleased to announce the receipt of a free licensing agreement from The Gap, Inc. to use the P.A.C.E curriculum in various projects implemented by KAPE’s where the curriculum is relevant. P.A.C.E. stands for Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement and is a curriculum developed by The Gap, Inc. over the years to support adolescents throughout the world with life skills that helps them to adapt to today’s constantly changing world.  The license agreement became/ effective as of 01 March 2020 by and between The Gap, Inc., which a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware in the United States of America, and KAPE, a non-profit organization based in the Provincial Teacher Training College (PTTC) of Kampong Cham Province, Old National Road # 7, Kampong Cham Town, Kampong Cham Province CAMBODIA. KAPE’s mission is to work with government, communities and other stakeholders to empower vulnerable children and youth to achieve their own right to quality education through innovative approaches.

The Gap, Inc. started its partnership with KAPE to implement the P.A.C.E curriculum as part of the implementation of the Life Skills Learning for Adolescent Girls (LSLAG) Project. This is a two-year project starting in December 2018 and finishing in November 2020. The project’s implementation is taking place in a total of 23 Secondary Schools in Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum Provinces and benefits approximately 12,000 youth (6,000 girls). The project is working closely with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports as well as Provincial and District Offices of Education. These are government stakeholders at both national and subnational level who participate in programming via a Project Working Group (PWG).

The goals of the P.A.C.E curriculum are to (1) build the skills and efficacy of adolescent girls to be confident, resourceful, and able to plan for their future; and (2) to build efficacy for girls to enable them to negotiate the physical, mental, and social transitions during adolescence that have important implications for outcomes in adulthood.

P.A.C.E is an innovative, gender integrated foundational skills program for adolescent girls ages 11-17 years that consists of two age-appropriate curricula including one for younger girls (ages 11-13) and another for older girls (ages 14-17). The program aims to enable healthy and positive transitions into adulthood, while recognizing and addressing gender vulnerabilities and inequalities. The program’s core belief and transformative potential of the curricula is that girls can transform their own lives with the critical skills given to them at the right time of their adolescence. For the Younger Girls’ Curriculum, there are 4 modules including Module 1: Me and My Environment; Module 2: Me and My Body; Module 3: Me and My Relationships; and Module 4: Me and My Aspirations. Four other modules have been developed as part of the Older Girls Curriculum including Module 1: Self; Module 2: Self-Efficacy; Module 3: Resourcefulness; and Module 4: Employability.

In order to implement this program, the project uses the contextualized modules reviewed by PWG members to build the capacity of stakeholders through various training workshops including (1) a 3-day TOT training on Younger Girls Curriculum and a 3-day TOT training on Older Girls Curriculum. These are provided to selected master trainers. The trained master trainers in turn provide a 4-day TOT training on the Younger Girls Curriculum and a 4-day TOT training on the Older Girls Curriculum to selected teachers. Teachers then receive a one one-day reflection meeting in each year.

With this license agreement to use the P.A.C.E curriculum, KAPE will now be able to support youth beyond the current LSLAG project, which will especially help girls who have poor access to information regarding personal development; little guidance in terms of life decision-making; and low ability to access resources for education and personal development toward self-actualization.

For more information on this curriculum, please contact Mr. Sao Vanna, KAPE Executive Director, Email: vanna@kapekh.org