Beauty Beyond Speech

In our last report, you read how four deaf ladies who are survivors of sexual and domestic abuse earned for themselves the position of Ambassadors of the Beauty Beyond Speech (BBS) project and are otherwise called the “Faces of BBS”. They were trained as Community Advocates for one month and were paid a one-time training allowance. Their trainer was the Head of BBS Project – a seasoned advocate for girls and women empowerment and public speaker. They graduated with the passion and enthusiasm to commence their one-year internship as advocates against all forms of abuse against deaf girls and women in the Nigerian Deaf community. They were to leverage on their membership of the Nigerian Deaf community to reach out to other girls and women who are survivors of sexual abuse, to counsel them and if needed, provide skill acquisition training. This report is about the first skill acquisition training organized by one of the BBS Ambassadors to train four other deaf girls and women in Abuja, Nigeria.

Soon after their training, she decided that her learned skill would be a strong tool for her advocacy and intervention. She is a talented lady; creative in making African hair, and that would be her strongest tool as she sets out to empower girls and women survivors of sexual and domestic abuse. She does not have a shop of her own but will be grateful to own one. She does not have tools but will equally be grateful to be equipped with the right tools for her career.

Tools were provided, chairs and tables were rented, lunch and transport fare were provided for both the trainer and the trainees. Venue was the Zurich Garden Abuja. Four deaf ladies-survivors of sexual abuse were trained for two weeks on hair plaiting and styling. Record of participation and learning ability of the students was kept, to determine the best student, who would receive start-up kits at the end of the training. The students graduated on the 11^th of September 2020, with some light graduation ceremony and students were issued certificates of graduation. Soon the best graduating student will receive the start-up kits before the end of October. See photos for details.

A tracking and monitoring plan is put in place to monitor the work progress of the best graduating student as she receives the start-up kits. This is to ensure that she is indeed making use of the tools to empower other deaf women survivors.

Other ambassadors are currently working on their different projects and we will bring you their reports as we go on. As we are preparing to participate in the forthcoming GivingTuesday, we hope to raise more funds that would keep the project running.