Vision: Improving the lifestyles and chances of the adolescent girls for a brighter future.
Mission: Empowering the adolescent girls for a brighter future.
AGI formally known as Adolescent Girls Project (AGP) came up as a result of a research undertaken, “The Almajiri Project”. One of the MacArthur Foundations sponsored FLD projects 1995-97), which discovered that, in the Traditional Qur’anic Schools in Northern Nigeria, the female child, Almajira, appeared more vulnerable than the male child, Almajiri. Although both suffer from the consequences of poverty of their respective families, the Almajira suffers the additional burden of being forced to contribute to whatever resources that was available to the family to help in preparing her for marriage. Often this takes the form of street hawking. The consequences that followed were devastating on the sexuality of the female child.
The research revealed that such adolescent girls are confronted by a number of problems that makes it difficult for them to grow up into a decent and healthy adulthood. In Sokoto metropolis such girls were exposed to various kinds of abuses, including sexual harassment, unwanted pregnancies, violence in the streets, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. We are currently working in eight Local Government Areas of Sokoto State.
Our project offers skills in home economics, knitting and sewing to these girls so that they have an source of income of their own. VSO provided funds to buy the knitting and sewing machines for the skill development center.
Once the girls have finished their training we give them a knitting or sewing machine on credit to enable them continue with their specific line of trade. When they have started their business, they pay back to the center a certain amount of money monthly and then we use this to purchase more machines for the next group of girls.
Our major problem at the moment is to get a set of machines to give on credit to the girls. If the girls are not helped in this way, many of them are not able to purchase their own machines and so they do not get the full benefit from the training.
a. To educate the adolescent girls on their rights and challenges of modernity as citizens of Nigeria.
b. To provide health education to adolescent girls through the support of their parents in areas of hygiene, reproductive health, and preventive measures against infectious diseases as well as sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.
c. To educate the adolescent girls on the dangers of early exposure to sex, unwanted pregnancies and abortion.
d. To promote the development of appropriate skills for adolescent girls as an alternative to street hawking.
e. To encourage parents and teachers to provide support to adolescent girls in their effort to develop income generating skills and economic self-reliance.
The structure of AGI comprises of Trustees, Patrons, Board of Governance, Executive Council and members.
From inception, a need assessment, (sponsored by the EU/VSO Capacity Building Project), was successfully carried out and the result processed. The results show that majority of the girls were interested in learning some skills as an alternative to street hawking. Most of the girls indicated that, they want to learn sewing, knitting and hairdressing. Some preferred to further their career while others wanted to be housewives. Two skills development centres were commissioned where fifty girls were trained in each of the centres in their chosen skill area. One of the centres is supported by a grant from the EU/VSO Capacity Building Project. Out of the one hundred girls admitted in the centre, forty-two (42) successfully graduated and were awarded certificates.
AGI has also been fortunate to be selected by Winrock International as one of the NGO that managed the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative - Ambassador’s Girls Sponsorship Programme (EDDI-AGSP) in Sokoto. It has mentored the girls in Government Girls Arabic Science Secondary School Illela. In the three years of the Scholarship Programme, the organisation has distributed school supplies, transport and pocket money to the girls. Three of the girls were transferred from G.G.A.S.S.S. Illela to G.G.S.S.S. Sokoto as a result of pressure from the Grandmothers who prefer marriage to schooling. One of the girls has completed secondary school and has been admitted into College of Education Sokoto for her National Certificate of Education (NCE). Another has completed and is awaiting admission into a tertiary institution.
In addition to the EDDI-AGSP, three girls from the centre in Yar-Sake have received some support from Prof. D. J. Shehu of the Department of Geography, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, to be enrolled in Primary school. Now AGP has continued to support the girls from its meagre resources in order to maintain them in school. One of the girls has completed Primary and is now in Junior Secondary School. Two more girls are under the support of AGI. One in Junior Secondary School and one in Senior Secondary School, making a total of five (5) girls supported by AGI.
The Adolescent Girls Initiative
No. 6 Zungeru Road off Sani Abacha Way,
P. O. Box 3587 Sokoto,
Sokoto State NigeriaContact Person
Safiya Tahir Abdullahi
No. 8 Abubakar Alhaji Estate,
University Quarters, Runjin Sambo Sokoto,
Sokoto State Nigeria.
Phone 08044126668, 08065334955, and 08029583279.
