The Stand With A Girl (SWAG) Initiative in partnership with the Emerging Market Foundation (empower) has commenced a pilot program to enhance the education, health, as well as livelihood of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), particularly adolescent girls.

The kick-off ceremony held on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, at the Wassa IDP Camp, FCT, Abuja.

Executive Director of SWAG, Ms. Margret Bolaji said the Scheme was starting with 60 out-of-school adolescent girls in Wassa IDP Camp between the ages of 10-19 years with the aim to increase their school enrollment and retention.

Ms. Bolaji further explained that the aim was also to improve the girls’ literacy and numeracy skills by having a safe space for them where they would gain life skills and support them to have livelihood opportunities, adding that this will be done through mentorship and scholarship.

According to her, “the 60 girls would be enrolled in 4 safe spaces granted by the community; 15 girls per safe space where they will learn life skills, literacy, numeracy, hygiene, Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights and skills like tailoring, hair dressing over a period of time.

“In that safe space, they are able to gain all of these life skills, also in that safe space, it will also include literacy and numeracy. After that, girls who are able to read and write will then be enrolled in a formal school, we’ll provide them with their tuition fee, uniforms, books, bags, and what they need to be able to keep them in school.

“While at the safe space, they are going to learn livelihood skills, they would be meeting women who are in businesses in the camp and we would support them to gain these skills and a very minimal start-up capital for them to be able to continue”.

Deputy Director Gender, FCT Education Secretariat, Mrs. Uduak Obong Umossoh said, part of what they do as a secretariat was to support vulnerable people and empower them with skills and education by partnering with organisations like SWAG.

Umossoh added that their role was to supervise and monitor education programs to ensure content given to the beneficiary was up to standard.

She encouraged the beneficiaries to make the best out of the opportunity by being committed to the program.

She further enlightened parents in the camp on the need to value education so they don’t destroy the future of their girl child by giving them out in early marriage. In addition, she cautioned them to make an equal effort in educating the girl child just like the boys.

On her part, Senior Program Officer, Adolescent School Health of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ms. Osibe Francisca said the initiative was a welcome development and the ministry would provide the needed Technical support to make it a success.

One of the beneficiaries, 14 year old Linda Adamu disclosed that she had been out of school for the past three years, she thanked SWAG and its partners and promised to make judicious use of the opportunity.

Post first appeared on The Fact