Girls Power Initiative - Nigeria

The mission of Girls' Power Initiative is to:

• build and increase the capacity of Nigerian adolescent girls to articulate and critically analyse issues that impact on their health and enjoyment of human rights;
• increase the access of adolescent girls in Nigeria to comprehensive and non-judgmental information on health, human rights, and sexuality from a gender perspective;
• develop the capacity of adolescent girls to overcome gender prejudices and grow into self-assured, active women in development;
• increase the number of informed and gender sensitive adolescent girls towards decreasing the gender gap in social, political, and economic sectors;
• sensitise the public and create awareness towards the elimination of gender prejudices and to build gender equality; and
• build the foundation for the creation of a gender activist institute in Nigeria.

GPI's activities to include skills training, the Gender Development Institute, outreach programmes, and counseling and referral services.

The GPI skills training programme is designed to inform girls about health and hygiene, as well as offer training for economic empowerment, in which they learn to produce simple things to meet their material needs either directly or by the sale of such items. They are also taught agricultural and industrial skills, as well as other basic skills, such as sewing, auto-mechanics, and electronics.

Since some girls cannot make it to GPI centers, the organisation instituted an outreach programme, which entails conducting lessons in selected schools during the school session and intensive holiday programmes. GPI also responds to the issues students identify as important through a question box system. Lessons in the schools are sometimes facilitated by teachers who GPI trains to carry on the GPI clubs and lessons in their schools.

The Gender Development Institute is one of the tools created by GPI to increase public awareness and promote gender equality discussions among stakeholders including NGO functionaries, technocrats, teachers, government functionaries, media practitioners, the private sector, and politicians, both female and male. The organisers state that their experiences with girls demonstrated the importance of community awareness in supporting girls to practice what they learn in GPI. The Institute is designed to build capacities of these various stakeholders to support girls.

In addition, GPI offers counseling services on issues affecting the girl-child in particular, and women in general. GPI also provides guidance and information to assist girls to make good decisions to overcome problems of growing up, and provides support in cases of rape, sexual abuse, trafficking in girls, and any other forms of abuse. It collaborates with selected local clinics, firms, and organisations for referral of girls who require clinical and legal services.

Gender, Youth

According to GDI, a pre and post-test evaluation process during GDI trainings reveal a high level of ignorance and misunderstanding of gender concepts. Thus, the GDI has proved to be an important opportunity for creating understanding of the concepts of gender, gender equality, and gender mainstreaming.