Hands Off Initiative

Our goal is to break the cycle of abuse and create a safer society for everyone, especially children. Currently, we provide in-person and virtual consent lessons to kids, with an age-appropriate consent curriculum that we developed to suit different contexts.

Currently, our work is constrained by limited resources. Winning the Elevate Prize would enable us to expand our offerings. We want to offer data sponsorships to address a key gap in access to our online consent classes as the cost of accessing the internet is relatively high. This fund would also enable us to offer our services in remote areas in Northern Nigeria like IDP (Internally Displaced Peoples) camps.

We would also like to present the curriculum in consumable media forms as the media is invaluable in shaping young Nigerian minds. With this fund, we would create such media and partner with media houses for broadcasting on TV, radio, billboards etc.

Building a culture of consent requires coordination with existing structures, so another aspect of our efforts would be creating safe spaces for sexual violence survivors and LGBTQIA+ children/young people. These safe spaces would be equipped with the resources and support that these groups currently lack in Nigeria.

I believe teaching is one of the best weapons to fight against preconceived ideas and the battle to change the way people think. As someone who was not necessarily taught about consent and had to do the learning independently, consent education is a formula I am making available to as many people as possible. 

I grew up in a low-income community where I was exposed to severe abuse from an early age up to my university days. My traumatizing experience, which significantly impacted my mental health negatively and the experiences of tons of Nigerian women, is one reason I founded Hands Off. Our vision for the future is to build a society where boundaries are respected, and everyone feels safe. We will be able to achieve this through our work in consent education and advocacy. 

By 2025, we are aiming to have reached 1million kids taught about consent in Nigeria. We aim to achieve this by the continuous teaching of consent, incorporating consent education into the Nigerian curriculum, training as many teachers as possible to effectively teach about consent and creating a safe space for survivors while providing them with the resources to help them thrive.

In 2017, there were 2279 reported rape cases in Nigeria. That year, the Nigerian Police Force recorded zero convictions for these rape cases. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 33% of women aged 15-49 have experienced physical or sexual violence. According to UNICEF, 1 in 4 women experience sexual violence before their 18th birthday. 

These heart-wrenching statistics are why we at HandsOff have come together to work towards curbing and breaking the cycle of sexual abuse in our society. We have a leadership team of 8 members and over 60 active volunteers across the globe. We work together by visiting schools, places of worship, offices, orphanages etc to teach children about the importance of consent. We teach children and have developed an extensive curriculum covering the basics of consent, establishing boundaries and other pertinent issues tailored to the age group of the participants. 

So far, we have partnered with Google to educate children about consent in rural Lagos and also, the United Nations Association of America to teach the importance of consent in Howard University. Since inception, we have trained over 4000 boys and girls on the importance of consent in Nigeria, South Africa and the United states. 

Due to the global pandemic, we had to adapt and find new innovative ways to teach consent. On the 24th of June, 2020, we held an online zoom "Consent for Kids" session where we taught consent and body autonomy to close to 300 families. The session had age-based breakout rooms as kids between the ages of 5 - 19 were in attendance. We also engaged parents and sensitized them on teaching consent to their children.

The success of this event led to us adapting to online classes. This year, we launched an opportunity for anyone to book a consent session on our website. We did this to keep our outreaches up and running without having to be physically present.  

A challenge we are currently facing is cancelled classes by potential students due to lack of data. Internet access is expensive for the average Nigerian and with funding from the Elevate Prize, we would offer data sponsorships to students interested in booking our consent classes. 

We believe social media is an excellent tool in our work. We use all social media outlets to create engaging content on consent which has led to more people being aware of the importance of consent.

Teaching children about consent and bodily autonomy has a significant impact on humanity, especially in our communities. With the rampant occurrences of sexual assault towards children, Hands Off aims to break this vicious cycle of pain and trauma. This is the reason we push so hard for consent education among children and young people. We strongly believe all these efforts culminate into a better society for us and our future generations.

We plan to achieve this through consent classes (both in-person and virtual), providing materials and resources for schools and reaching out to communities with a gap that we can fill with relevant information.
 
Beyond teaching these kids, we also intend to train guardians and adults on the importance of consent and educate them on talking to kids about consent. It is important to note that in Nigeria specifically, there needs to be incredible coordination to achieve these goals due to the cultural pushback that we experience by trying to do something that is not the norm. I believe that every person we educate has a massive impact on their community. With this approach, we would be creating a ripple effect that will positively impact humanity.