Improving Adolescent Girls Access to SRHR

Girls' Power Initiative (GPI) beneficary (Miss Faith) took out time and participated in a national summit in celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child (October 11) to lend her voice and on behalf of other adolescent girls to speak up and advocate for improved access to sexual reproductive health and services for their healthy development. 

The summit discussed critical rights violations issues and other concerns to adolescent girls in Nigeria particularly around the subject matter of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) harmful traditional practices and other issues affecting the girls like the need for girls to access skills that empower them in today's digital world and open up opportunities for girls to champion their advocacy. 

The desire to speak up came as a result of the following findings:

• Nigeria is ranked 122 out of 144 countries in the global gender gap which means women are not treated equal to men in our society and also does not have equal access to services and opportunities. 
• Nigeria has alarming statistics of child marriage, gender -based violence and poor education. 43% of girls are married before their 18th birthday. 17% are married before they turn 15. 
• The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown placed a lot of Nigeria's girls in high risk position as they were trapped with perpetrators in the same space with little or no room for demand for justice. 

Girls at the summit including Faith, resolved that:

"The Nigerian government must put our laws to work in protecting the rights of the girl child, making the justice system more effective and create a conducive legal environment for girls to report cases safely"

"There is a strong need to increase the availability of safe spaces with trained facilitators working to empower girls and provide them with skills and assets building opportunities. The Nigerian Government must invest in girlss education to produce better empowered girls who can contribute to development of their communities and the nation at large"