GIVE OUT A PAD, SAVE A GIRL CHILD

Violence against girls and young women remains one of the most prevalent and persistent issues facing girls and young women in Nigeria though under reported. Over the years, violence against girls and young women have been perpetuated and accepted as a normal way of life with girls and young women living with increased cases of gender-based violence with one out of three girls and young women experiencing sexual violence like rape, molestation, harassment, early or forced marriage and child cohabitation. 

Poor menstrual hygiene and lack of access to menstrual products have also exacerbated sexual violence against girls and young women which has resulted in teenage pregnancy, forced abortion, forced cohabitation resulting from unintended pregnancy and maternal mortality.

Patriarchal ideas about females have contributed to the discrimination, exploitation and violations of girls and young women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) like right to education including sex education, right to make free and informed reproductive choices, right to birth control, right to decide when to have sex and consent to same and right to menstrual care.

In addition, men and boys believe in exerting oppressive sociocultural norms and practices that exacerbate violence against girls and young women without consideration to the violations of girls and young women’s human rights. These sociocultural norms and practices are contextually and socially derived collective expectations of inappropriate behaviours that promotes violence against girls and young women in grassroots communities. Unfortunately, the consequences of violence against girls and young women are never addressed because girls and young women do not disclose them to relevant agencies because of sociocultural norms that blame the girls and young women for the assault (e.g., she was out alone after dark, she was not modestly dressed, she is working outside the home), norms that prioritize protecting family/community honour over safety of the survivor, and institutional acceptance of violence against girls and young women as a normal and expected part of the society.  

Community leaders, institutions, and service providers, such as healthcare, education and law enforcement, have reinforced harmful sociocultural norms by, for example, blaming girls and young women for the types of violence they experience andforcing a girl or young women to live with a man who has defiled and impregnated her.

 The need for concrete and urgent actions to combat this problem through change in perception, and girls and young women living without fear of violence can therefore not be overstated. Therefore, through this project, we will focus on reorienting the people of the selected communities by creating a mental shift through strategic and innovative programs aimed at tackling sociocultural norms that promote violence against girls and young women and also establish structures for sustainability of interventions made.

Sexual violence against girls and young women and, period poverty is strongly linked to gender inequality, patriarchy, and harmful sociocultural norms and practices. Girls and young women’s inclusion in taking actions to end violence against girls and young women at community level has evolved, as their increased engagement is now known to be key to the successful implementation of mission mandates aimed at eradicating societal beliefs that exacerbates violence against girls and young women. 

According to “The State of Human Rights in Nigeria 2018 Report on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence” by the National Human Rights Commission, the rate at which women and children are subjected to sexual exploitation, rape, assault and other forms of violence is growing. This was confirmed by the National Demographic and Health Survey Report of 2018 which states that 31% of women have experienced physical violence since age 15. 

Also, reports say girls in Nigeria miss an average of 24% of a school year due to period poverty and this affects their educational performance, emotional wellbeing and health with some girls dropping out of school while some girls exchange sex for money, thereby increasing the risk of sexual violence and sexually transmitted diseases/infections. More so, 25% of women lack adequate privacy for menstrual hygiene management.

Also, the International Monetary Fund Annual Report 2020 ranked Nigeria at 133 out of 149 countries in the global gender gap indices under major indicators which include health and survival and the inference that can be drawn from this is that Nigerian women and girls constitute the large majority of the marginalised and vulnerable in Nigeria and are at a position of disadvantage with very poorer life chances when compared with men. There is also a need to contribute to ensuring the eradication of violence against girls and young women, ensuring that girls and young women no longer live in fear of violence, identify their capacity gaps and how they can positively coordinate and contribute to addressing the numerous challenges of women and girls.

 The baseline assessment conducted from our beneficiaries shows that the communities have high rates of teenage pregnancy resulting majorly from sexual violence and exploitation as some of the girls are sexually exploited in a bid to source for money for food, school fees, menstrual productsand other necessities especially for poor girls and young women in the communities.

In this regard, our project will adopt a gender transformative human rights-based approach that will make increased efforts to implement and evaluate well-designed interventions that challenges sociocultural norms that support violence and violations of girls and young women’s SRHR, facilitate shifting of mindsets about their SRHR, the need to discuss girls and young women’s SRHR and provide access to SRHR information, services and products to girls and young women in the selected communities. It will also empower the selected beneficiaries with entrepreneurship skills for self-reliance and sustainability.

Our project adopts a community embedded approach for addressing SRHR needs of girls and young women in rural communities, schools, prisons and IDP camps. As such, the project will directly reach an overall population of 1000000000 among which approximately 800000 individuals are girls and young women across our selected communities. The project is set to directly reach and benefit in-school and out-of-school girls and young women aged 10-25 years in rural communities, schools, prisons and IDP camps. They will be trained on their SRHR, menstrual hygiene management, how to end teenage pregnancies, forced abortions, forced cohabitation and period poverty. Furthermore, 40% of the girls and young women will be trained as peer educators who will go on to train and support other girls and young women in their respective schools and communities.

Another set of direct beneficiaries will be 500 primary health care workers, 500 community health workers, 500 patent medicine vendors, 160000 secondary school teachers, 400 guidance counsellors, 500000 parents and guardians and 200000 community leaders that will be selected across rural communities, schools, prisons and IDP camps. They will have their capacities built and strengthened in providing SRHR information and services to girls and young women and also contribute to a sustainability plan beyond the life of the project. The direct beneficiaries of this project have been selected based on the findings arising from the baseline assessment carried out across our target audiences. Through the baseline assessment, the target groups were involved in issue identification, which has formed the basis for the design of this project.

 
Through second tier peer - where one peer educator is envisaged to 15 other girls and young women, the project will reach out to a further 2,250 girls and young womenin the project areas in both the schools and the communities. Just like direct beneficiaries, these indirect beneficiaries have been identified based on the results of the baseline assessment. Through awareness raising meetings and advocacy activities carried out by the project and the girls and young women, community members including men and boys will be indirectly reached by this project.

 The project will make a deliberate move to reach out to the excluded and vulnerable groups including female inmates, girls and young women with disabilities.

To overcome the barriers to girls and young women accessing SRHR information, services, and products while specifically addressing sexual violence, teenage pregnancies, forced cohabitation resulting from unintended pregnancies and period poverty, myself and my team will be exploring the following activities considering our proven commitment and existing structures as a result of our previous projects:

1. Courtesy visits to traditional rulers of the selected rural communities.
2. Identification and mapping of primary healthcare workers, community health workers, patent medicine vendors and schools in the project communities.
3. A one-day stakeholders’ engagement meeting to introduce the project to key stakeholders in the rural communities, schools, IDP camps and prisons, get their buy-ins and obtain their commitment to support implementation of the project and its knowledge translation in the communities.
4. Production of informative manual on girls and young women SRHR information and services that targets various groups.
5. Capacity building workshop for primary healthcare workers, community health workers and patent medicine vendors on the provision of adolescent-friendly SRHR information and services.
6. Training of school teachers and guidance counsellors on provision of comprehensive SRHR information to school girls.
7. Training on SRHR information and services to school girlsand strengthening of related school club members.
8. Training of men and boys to prevent violence against girls and young women and reduce risky sexual behaviours.
9. Engage out-of-school girls and young women on community campaigns to end sexual violence, teenage pregnancies, forced abortions and forced premarital cohabitation. 
10. Conduct a training workshop for parents and guardians on girls and young women’s SRHR needs and communication.
11. Quarterly review meeting with community representatives to harvest reports on actions taken to curb violence against girls and young women in the communities.
12. Skill acquisition training for selected girls and young women in the project communities.
13. Awareness creation through bulk short messages services and other digital platforms on girls and young women’s SRHR.
14. Carryout supportive supervision of the activities of the trained direct beneficiaries to ensure they act in tandem with the project goal and monitor project outcomes.
15. Organize a public panel discussion with girls and young women and, experts to exchange ideas and discuss on a topic of interest (‘access to SRHR information and services’); explore factors that influence girls and young women’s health and well-being; and discuss how participants can work together to improve access to comprehensive SRHR information and services.
16. Project Endline Evaluation
17. Project close-out meeting and presentation of project’s achievements on improved access to SRHR information and services for girls and young women in the selected communities.

18. Creation of pad banks that facilitate access of free sanitary pads and menstrual products for beneficiaries.

The most significant achievement that has resulted from our project is encompass in the reality of having our project spread across 5 states in nigeria comprises of; 28 rural communities, 4 government girls college, 6 IDP camps and 2 correction service (prisons) with a sum total of 33748 beneficiaries

We are bringing a low-cost effective approach to behaviour change through a two-pronged approach. This approach is a hybrid approach adapted from our previous engagements where we use community structures for building people’s consciousness on an issue we are advancing, employing media for mass awareness and reaching a larger population and integrating policy influencing through participation where policy makers are drawn into a development issue towards collective and transformative solution. The process and method we are adopting is explained in the 2 approaches below:

• Approach 1: First, we intend to use the existing and organic structures at the community level. This will mean, rather than setting up new discussion spaces and groups, we will build this into the already established community response committee spaces, while adopting the SRHR Peer Education Manual that allows girls and young women to organize.

 The above approach provides us the opportunity of interventing from a low cost approach while targeting community girls and young women who ordinarily would not have access to the required information on SRHR. The SRHR Peer Education Manual will become a holistic resource tool for girls in building their consciousness on issues that affect their sexual, reproductive, mental health and overall development issues. 

 • Approach 2: We will target those who may have access to telephones and this approach will be carried out through monthly messages being sent to their phones. Our key targets will be the community members who we cannot reach directly as it is impossible to engage the entire residents of the project communities. Bulk SMS will be sent monthly to their telephone numbers educating them on the importance of supporting access to SRHR information and services for girls and young women. This approach will naturally generate community conversations around girls and young women’s SRHR on a large scale through a low cost approach.

 To make the above work efficiently and for delivering results, the messages will be sent in English Language and their local dialects. Every 3 months, we will collect feedback from the community members. This will allow our organization to monitor message engagement, identify issues and trends, and hear directly from community members in their own voices about the impact of the messages.

Our innovative approach is needed now as it will lead to the following benefits:

• A wider reach: Through telephones, SRHR messaging can be heard by the whole community and not just those who attend the physical engagements. This will mean a significant increase in reach and, more importantly, reach the most marginalized, including girls and young women who usually help their parents to read the messages that drops on their telephones.
• Community feedback
• Data collection: Assessing behaviour change campaigns can be difficult. Therefore, we will have access to data and insights we can use to evaluate message effectiveness, improve content for future deployments, and create program reports.

It is hoped that this transformative project will bring to limelight harmful sociocultural practices that hinders girls and young women’s SRHR and community members will have significant improvements in their knowledge, attitudes and practices as it relates to girls and young women SRHR. We also anticipate that this project will highlight evidence that gender transformative approach through targeted interventions at community levels, health facilities and stakeholders can make significant impact in the SRHR of girls and young women’s rights in Nigeria.

 
This project will also generate the power within to negotiate and decide on issues that concerns them. It will reveal that power to negotiate remains a powerful strategy to ending sexual violence, teenage pregnancies, forced abortions, forced cohabitation and period poverty. These we will achieve through the following expected outcomes:

1. Strengthened capacities and knowledge of girls and young women to advocate for an end to sexual violence and with access to SHR information, services and products.
2. Increased number of girls and young women accessing menstrual hygiene products and services at the community health facility.
3. Reduced number of unintended pregnancies among girls and young women.
4. Increased promotion of gender equitable sociocultural norms, attitudes and behaviours to prevent sexual violence and harmful practices against girls and young women.
5. Reviewed sociocultural barriers to girls and young women's SHR by community leaders and increased number of community bylaws prohibiting sexual violence and child/forced cohabitation.
6. Improved awareness, knowledge and access to SHR information and services among girls and young women.
7. Increased number of parents/guardians who willingly discuss SRHR matters with their girls and young women. &. Increased number of men and boys with improved knowledge on the importance of supporting actions to address harmful sociocultural norms and practices that promotes violence against women and girls.
8. Increased number of awareness sessions on sexual violence and period poverty targeting women, girls, men, boys, community leaders, government agencies and health service providers.
9. Improved economic empowerment of girls and young women for self-reliance and sustainability.
10. Increased awareness of existing agencies girls and young women can refer cases to and seek redress against violations of their rights.
11. Increased number of community actions addressing violence against women and girls.
12. Expanded safe spaces like school club for adolescent girls to strengthen life skills, with scaled-up provision of SHR information and services.
13. Increased number of community health workers, patent vendors and community structures with competencies for providing SHR information and services to girls and young women.
14. Increased number of girls and young women who visited and/or received SHR information and services from trained providers after the campaign.

Patriarchy, gender inequality and harmful sociocultural norms and practices are rapidly demolishing the hard-earned gains ingirls and young women’s empowerment and gender equality, and it is manifested through increased sexual violence, teenage pregnancy, forced abortions and period poverty. As such, If rapid and immediate SRHR services can be provided to girls and young women then it will improve the health outcome of girls and young women, because support services are available and accessible. Considering the decline of outreach regarding SHRH and the simultaneous increase in forced cohabitation,teenage pregnancies and period poverty during the corresponding timeframe, if continuity of SRHR information and services is maintained, then girls and young women, as well as the greater community, are further aware of accessible support system and availability of information. 

 Moreover, due to the increased vulnerability of girls and young women to sexual violence, if immediate information on unintended pregnancy prevention are available then they are protected from unintended pregnancy because of additional resources and achieve positive health outcome through adequate and tailored sexual exploitation prevention messages and training. Moreover, If targeted and customized support to girls and young women through support groups and safe spaces are provided, then their educational, mental and physical health outcomes will improve because they have access to social support network, adequate information and access to specific protection services.

We have a full time staff of 3 persons, part time staffs of 28 persons across the 5 states we are incorporated, 124 volunteers across the 5 states we are incorporated and 5 body of trustees.

The pilot project of our campaign project was implemented on the 25th of July, 2020. This implies that my organization “nicholasmotivates initiative” has being driving this postive change through the “GIVE OUT A PAD, SAVE A GIRL CHILD” campaign project since 2020.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is fundamental to our mission and our vision of a world where every person has the right to make decisions about their reproductive health and life and has equitable access to the full range of reproductive health care services and information. We recognize in our work and in our workplace that individual experience is based on multiple and intersecting identities, including but not limited to age, citizenship, class, color, culture, education, ethnicity, family status, gender identity and expression, health status or disability, income, language, national origin, partnership status, pregnancy status, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.

The proposed solution emanated from our engagements with girls and young women of the selected rural communities, prisons, IDP camps and schools majority of whom are survivors of period poverty, sexual violence, teenage mothers, out-of-school girls and girls forced into cohabitation with men that violated and impregnated them. They recommended that awareness should be created on period poverty, sexual violence, teenage pregnancy, forced abortion, forced cohabitation resulting from unintended pregnancy as many adolescent girls are dying in silence with no support systems and lack of SRHR information, services and products. Their recommendations were adequately captured in the design of this project as we live by the principle “Nothing About Us, Without Us” which includes designing our interventions in partnership with the girls who experience in their own lives, the issue we hope to address. Ignoring this rule may undermine valuable local work and the credibility of our interventions. We involved girls and young women with experiences of different sociocultural backgrounds to enable us have a good grasp of what their problem and needs are.

 girls and young women, as the main beneficiaries of this project, will be involved throughout the project’s life. Girls and young women will be involved in the design phase of the project where they will participate in coming up with project implementation strategies and, monitoring and evaluation tools. Some girls and young women will also be involved in training and mentoring other girls, while others will act as role models to the younger girls. Through regular project review meetings, girls and young women will be involved in shaping and re-shaping the project by coming up with new approaches to project implementation. They will also actively participate in monitoring and evaluating the project.  

Our dominant plan of becoming financially sustainable through the GIVE OUT A PAD, SAVE A GIRL CHILD campaign project is by purchasing sanitary pad producing machines which enables us produce more efficient and reliable disposable sanitary pads hence selling them on a subsided and affordable price to our beneficiaries through our existing structures across our target audiences.

The sustainability of the project is guaranteed as some of the benefits of the proposed project will outlast the life of the grant. This is because we will be working through existing structures in the communities that enables communities to take action and own their programme. To achieve the intended outcomes, the project will build the capacity of the communities to sustain the services provided by this project and, the beneficiaries will be actively involved in all stages of the project cycle. This will create a sense of ownership in the communities. As we identified issues to be addressed by this project, we drew from experience and lessons of ongoing programme relating to women and girls’ protection, sexual and gender-based violence and health.