LEAP AFRICA

‘I try to help my students build their self-confidence, to speak up and stand up for their rights’.

These are the words of Chinazo who is worried about the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in her community. Chinazo is one of the fifteen iLEAD Fellows cascading leadership, employability and life skills training in five secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. She observes that girls between ages 14 – 16 are pregnant within the Oron community, and is determined to chart a different course for the 30 girls under her guidance.

One in every five girls in Akwa Ibom aged 15 – 19 is either pregnant or has had a child. In Nigeria, 4 in 10 girls have been victims of sexual and gender based violence. One in six girls have experienced emotional violence before the age of 18 and only about 4 percent of abused girls get needed help.

The high prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Akwa Ibom has been blamed on limited parental care, social neglect, and poverty on the part of most vulnerable teenagers. Chinazo who is also from a humble background says she is able to relate with the daily realities of these girls. Chinazo says, that trainings on leadership, self-awareness and emotional intelligence is helping to change the mindset of her girls and believes the trainings will go a long way in shaping positive future outcomes for them.

Although she studied History and Education at the University of Benin, Edo State Nigeria, Chinazo was not sure of life after university. However, she noted that the opportunity to cascade leadership and life skills training has given her a renewed sense of purpose and clarity on her personal vision and life goals. She now considers herself an educational transformer, and wants to pursue a Master’s Degree in Educational Planning and Administration after the fellowship. ‘I want to organise teacher trainings, and work in the ministry of education…because national transformation begins with education’, she says.

There are many more like Chinazo who are interested in providing answers to social problems, but have limited ideas and a platform to launch out. Your kind donations can help increase the number of fellows from 15 to 50, so that every year 1500 girls and boys in secondary schools can have access to skills and tools that would reduce their sense of vulnerability, raise their aspirations, improve their academic and non-academic outcomes, and prepare them for the next phase of their lives.