Today, we celebrate all girls all over the world. The United Nations declared the International Day of Girl Child to amplify the voices of young girls worldwide and increase awareness of issues faced by them. According to the United Nations, achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is an integral part.

To this end, HACEY Health Initiative has conducted a safe space (leadership and health) workshop. 30 girls were trained at the workshop, with knowledge on sexual and reproductive health, financial management, career development, life building and digital skills to strengthen their capacity to make informed decisions regarding their health and productivity. In the end, the girls were empowered with information, technical skill and resources crucial to amplify their voices and advance their rights.

HACEY Health Initiative has hosted 100 secondary school girls to a 1-day career-building exercise with women in management positions across diverse fields to celebrate this day. The mentoring exercise took place at Johnson and Johnson, Stag Engineering, Havana, Banwo & Ighodalo and Nensis Engineering. The mentoring exercise provided the girls with a better understanding of their chosen career path and insights on educational qualifications, technical skills and personal development.  

The winner of the annual 2021 International Day of the Girl Child Essay competition has been announced. The essay competition encourages critical thinking towards proffering solutions to girl child issues in Nigeria. The top ten finalists have been awarded cash prizes and other consolation prizes. The first three were awarded a laptop & N50,000, N30,000 and other consolation prizes, and N20,000 and other consolation prizes, respectively.

Speaking on the health and productivity of women and girls, here’s an interview with a beneficiary of the HACEY Health education scheme. He is an advocate for the Girl Child. Watch what Lawal Aisha and her father, Mr Lawal Rasaq had to say here:

This project successfully reached over 200, 000 young girls with information on health and leadership thereby amplifying their voices in society, creating a healthy and productive environment for them. It also helped promote the rights of girls to education, health, and economic empowerment in Nigeria as well as created a conducive platform for young girls to lead a healthy and productive life. 

In the end, 100 young girls were enlightened on the specific characteristics of preferred career, requirements, and available career opportunities and 10 young girls were inducted into the HACEY girls’ advisory board.

Written by Tomiyin Ayibiowu.

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Let’s look at Grace’s story (real name withheld). At 17, Grace got admission to the great University of Lagos to study Medicine & Surgery. Grace was excited to move with her Uncle in Lagos, away from her parents, because she heard Lagos was fun. Uncle Gbade, a single working-class man who lived in a rented apartment, was happy to receive Grace. However, two weeks upon arrival, the COVID-19 lockdown was announced, and Grace and Uncle Gbade were locked in the apartment. 

One day, while Grace was making dinner for the two of them, Uncle Gbade walked behind and started caressing her. Grace became uncomfortable and warded him off, but Uncle Gbade wouldn’t desist from her. He eventually raped her several times.

Grace found out she was pregnant three weeks later and didn’t know what to do. She was ignorant about her sexual and reproductive health rights. She finally decided to tell Uncle Gbade about the growing pregnancy. Uncle Gbade would not take it, and he took her to a quack doctor who attempted to remove the fetus. Grace lost her life in the process as a result of ignorance. If she knew better, she would have done better.

Twenty-five years after the (ICPD) 1994 aimed at addressing issues of human rights, population, sexual and reproductive health, many challenges still remain. Too many young people are being left behind on intimate partner or sexual violence.

A range of social, cultural, political, and economic factors and inequalities strongly influences an adolescent’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH). For example, family planning information and services are often tailored specifically for married women. When a young woman asks questions about SRH, she is often frowned at and perceived as promiscuous or immoral.

These factors increase vulnerability to SRH risks (e.g., unsafe sex, sexual coercion) and pose barriers to accessing SRH services. 

Globally, young girls and women have been at the receiving end of the unprecedented challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented. Like many other services, the availability and accessibility to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services were impacted negatively, causing distress, anxiety and fear among women and girls. 

“During the COVID-19 lockdown in April, May and June 2020, there was a reduction in uptake of family planning services compared to January, February and March when there was no restriction”. – Reports from Adolescent and Youth-friendly centres in Lagos State.

Conclusively, in addressing the underlying determinants of the Adolescent and Young people’s sexual reproductive health and rights, it is imperative to work with various stakeholders such as parents, community members, and policymakers. Also, it is a matter of urgency that every nation promotes the digitalization of their health system. This will ensure that everyone has unlimited access to health information and services irrespective of their location, especially in the event of another global epidemic. 

Sexual Right is a Human Right! 

ICPD – International Conference on Population and Development.

Written by Kemi Omole.

Edited by Tomiyin Ayibiowu.

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The role of the Nigerian Government and society in achieving gender equality in Nigeria.

Eligibility 

Secondary school girls aged 9 – 18 in Nigeria 

Application Period 

August 20th – September 30th, 2021 

Guidelines & Submission 

All essays must: 

• Contain a cover page containing the student’s full name, school name, class, email address, state of residence and phone number.
• Be written in English language. 
• Not exceed 1000 words. 
• Be the original work of the applicant. 

Submission 

Essays should be submitted to essays@hacey.org on or before 6:00 pm on September 16th, 2021. 

Notification and Announcement of Winners

Finalists will be notified by October 1st, 2021 and winners will be announced and awarded at the 10th International Day of the Girl Child Conference in Lagos State. 

Prizes 

1st – Laptop & N50,000

2nd – N30,000 and other consolation prizes

3rd – N20,000 and other consolation prizes

Other consolation prizes to be won by finalists.

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 The Youth Amplify SRHR project is a one-year long project aimed at increasing the level of awareness and uptake of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services among young people in tertiary institutions across the southwest, Nigeria. The project will leverage on the use of digital media to reach young people with quality information on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) by engaging with students across the selected states as SRHR Champions. The champions will ensure demand generation for increased SRHR information and access to services. Click here to apply.

Research has shown that dialogue and positive guidance have been instrumental in creating an enabling environment for young people to access the knowledge of their sexual and reproductive health and rights while also creating an environment for them to access the services.

Why is SRHR Important?

 The Sustainable Development Goal 3 reflects the ambition to improve SRH services for people everywhere, including young people. This is important because young people have diverse sexual and reproductive health needs that need to be catered for and access to information about SRH services will empower young people to make informed decisions about their sexual health and well-being while ensuring they are able to maximize their life productively.

When young people are empowered to make the right sexual and reproductive health decisions, they, in turn, boost the demographic dividend of their country thus reducing the level of poverty and increasing their quality of life.

Access to sexual and reproductive service is not dependent on an active sexual life. It involves information on and access to modern contraception, information on menstruation, HIV & STI’s, testing and treatments among others. Research has also shown that knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and access to quality services have the power to improve the lives of people because it boosts their confidence and empowers them to make healthy decisions about their sexuality.

What we are doing to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services?

 Despite the importance of accessing SRHR services, young people face a number of obstacles accessing sexual and reproductive health services including the fear of being stigmatized for being sexually active, unavailability of quality services, lack of information about available SRH services among others.

HACEY Health Initiative with funding support from Amplify Change, UK, aims to work with young people in tertiary institutions across South-West states in Nigeria to increase awareness and uptake of Sexual and Reproductive Health services and products. The project will be implemented in Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Ekiti States.

Tertiary education students in the participating states with a passion for SRHR are invited to apply to become SRHR Champions. 100 students will be selected from each state to participate in the program. They will be trained to advocate for increased access to SRH services by leveraging on digital media to create contents and disseminate on social media.

Empowering Young People.

   Qualified applicants into the Youth Amplify project will be trained in photography, videography and other digital media tools for storytelling.
They will also be empowered to advocate with government stakeholders in their respective states to increase access to SRHR services.
 It is expected that the engagement of SRHR champions will foster an increased uptake of SRHR services in each participating state and help to improve the health of young people. Applications to the Youth Amplify SRHR project is ongoing and will end on September 30th, 2020. Click here to apply.

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