International Girlchild day: Engaging and Empowering the girl for future

In 2018 I was invited to speak on International girlchild, I was so excited because of I got an opportunity to speak and connect with young girls, much to my dismay the girls were not fully aware of what exactly the day was about, they seemed uninterested in the activities going on around them some were even yawning from boredom. This wasn't what I had pictured when coming to the event, I had expected it to be as engaging as my mentorship sessions were when I visited schools to talk to the girls about personal hygiene and mental health. I tried y best to engage them but I was discouraged myself, in 2019 the same thing happened ,I was again invited to talk to the girls in commemoration of the Girlchild day but most of the girls were only physically there because their schools forced them

In 2022 I decided to host my own international Girlchild's day event but after my experience I knew I wanted a program with a difference, an event that was engaging (because why would you be celebrating Girlchild's day with no girls participating actively in it? ) and impactful.

After a long discussion about the future of young girls in northern Nigeria and the roles both we and the girls can play in securing a better future my team and I finally came up with a debate championship. We wanted something empowering that will also enable the girls play a vital part in achieving this vision.

We came up with a debate championship in commemoration with the International Girlchild day (11th October).An inter-school debate were girls from 4 schools in the federal Capital Territory engage in the debate before October so that the final lap will be on the main International Girlchild day.

This initiative will encourage girls to be more involved in the celebration by teaching them more on related issues on some of the Sustainable development goals are trying to achieve like no poverty, zero hunger, education ,clean water and sanitation and lots more.

We will create the topics for debate form the SDGs, we will engage them and teach them skills that will empower them and we will also encourage community projects like book drives.

This project is one that is close to my heart and I know that a lot of people will share this sentiment and that is why I am sharing my passion with tis platform to find partners that will want to join our project.