Working For The Girl Child

What started out as a mere interest has become a passion and a life journey for me.

In my little way I am advocating for girls' rights. I work to provide a levelled playing ground for girls to do life. I use education as a tool to empower girls and help them reach their God given potential where they can in turn affect their communities.

I believe that no meaningful development can be made by a community or Nation without girl education and empowerment.

Being the first and oldest girl child in my family left me desiring an older sister-figure as a child. There was much to learn from and talk to an older brother about,but that was just never enough for me. Cultural and age gaps existed between me and my mother then, so there were things I could not speak freely with her about.

It is these unmet girly yearning that inspired my interest in girls. What roles that were not met in my day ,I set out to play for girls in my community today.

The challenges of girls today compared with girls in my day are not so different but more sophisticated I think. And the challenges abound indeed, but I see that if a girl is given an education basically, she can more likely surmount those other problems like poverty, delay and eradicate early marriage, reduce SGBV, girl-child trafficking,etc

Getting Education was a problem for girls then, unfortunately it still is now, though some progress has been made. 30% of girls still do not have access to Education in Nigeria.

Education ( formal and informal) is our tool for driving change.

This informs my initiative called Retaining girls in School . Through the non-profit I founded and run, we source for girls who have never been in school , dropped out, or even at the verge of dropping out. We get these girls educated to have at least a secondary School education by paying their fees, distributing of reusable pads to end menstrual poverty, and providing some school needs like stationary.

For informal Education, I run Purity Clubs where girls learn Life Skills and get to be mentored. This is like a haven where girls get to mingle with other girls, unwind through fun activities, learn skills like baking, sewing, and plaiting. We help girls who cannot read well to improve, run booth camps, teach on topics that affect girls like Menstrual Health and Hygiene, self esteem, peer pressure, emotional intelligence etc.

Our Life Skills coaching are done to help the girls tap their leadership, communication, interpersonal communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills. The coaching focuses on the individual girls in their uniqueness, and we give listening ears to their unique needs and guide them to find solutions to their individual challenges. We are that " big sister" figure in their lives.

We teach our girls boundary setting. They learn to build personal values and how to respectfully communicate that to others, learn empathy for others as they relate in the club and outside,find inner strength and become assertive in the values they choose.

We teach Design thinking as a way of solving problems from the roots. Not to just solve problems that work, but innovative solutions that are human centric and will bring lasting solutions to the challenges that girl's face.

Today, I see the lives of girls that have been impacted by our work. The story of the first girl we have helped through secondary school comes to mind. Susan ( not her real name).

I met her 5 years ago. She attended our Purity Club and was regular. Then I noticed she was absent for a while. When I inquired, I was told she had left the community because she now works for a family. Her father was dead and the mother was not doing anything except farming. The farming could not sustain the family's basic needs for shelter, clothing and food. She had to be sent to work so she could pay her school fees, since she was bent on getting an education. No body in her family had a secondary school education. She was a first in her family but it was inconvenient financially for her to continue.

The family Susan worked for was a new couple who just had a baby and needed help around the house so the new mother could easily cope with taking care of the new member of the family.

After some months, Susan returned back and in tears told me she was no longer working with the family.

The husband had made sexual advances at her, when she refused, he started to threaten her. He knew she was bent on going to school so she could change her lot and that of her family. The reward for her working in their home was a good education to completion of her secondary school.

The man leveraged on her vulnerability to get sexual favors in return. The girl refused and he asked her to choose between getting an education or leave.

She chose to do the latter. She had learnt at the Purity club about sexual abuse and exploitation, she had learnt about self esteem,awareness and self confidence. She knew the power of choice and what consent meant. These are things one might most likely not get in a class room in Nigeria.

On returning home, her mom and elder sister asked her to return back to work and apologize to the man. The family did not have money to take care of her. It was in this dilema she came to me.

After sharing with me, I was never so proud of a young girl. She was a good mentee. We took up her education and today she has completed her secondary school without having to be sexually molested or give sex in exchange for education.

With a secondary school certificate, she can get a small job, but she has better chances of getting a higher education now.

She is more self aware and wants to live a better life than the one her family has offered her.

She can take informed decisions about her body, Life and future. And she will.

Girls are almost 25% of the World's population and this population is in dire need of people who will not only be their voice but teach them to find and use their voices.

Girls do not just need role models for them to learn from, but need to start becoming role models to themselves. Hence we have a model of mentor- mentee within the girls, where the older girls mentor the younger ones.

It is not enough to know the divers challenges girls face depending on which part of the world they live, they need to be helped to start finding innovative ways to solve their own problems. They need to be on the tables where issues concerning girls are discussed.

I am Jefiter Mang, and I will keep working till girls in my community get at least a secondary school education.