Jennifer Umeh: A Young Nigerian Fighting for Girl-Child Education Through HAGi

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In our society today, there is the challenge of basic education, owing to so many factors that range from poverty, to lack of basic social amenities. Especially for the girl-child, who are considered vulnerable, they are confronted with sexual violence, child-marriage, among others. Jennifer Umeh, is changing the fortune of the girl-child in Nigerian rural communities, with Hope for African Girls Initiative (HAGI), a volunteer driven organization she started this year. She shares her passionate fight to see every child return to school on our Weekend Spotlight.

Tell us a bit about you.
My name is Jennifer Umeh, a student of The Federal Polytechnic, Offa. I am the founder of Hope for African Girls Initiative, a non-profit volunteer-driven, education-focused organisation that empowers and transforms the lives of girls through citizenship education and peace building. I am privileged to work with a team of other young students whom we move from one community to another to provide quality education to undeserved children in geographically marginalised communities.

What was the inspiration?
The inspiration was after I attended the ‘Educate a Girl Nigeria’ \workshop in Lagos. The workshop was an eye-opener for me as I became aware of too many illicit behaviours bedeviling the girl-child around the world such as child marriage, sexual assault, violence against girls, and lack of access to education, among others. I saw the need to help young people, I desired to speak out so that my voice to be heard. I said to myself, if only my voice could change the status quo in Africa, why should I hold back. I approached some NGOs indicating my interest to serve as a volunteer. I joined ‘Her Voice Africa’, ‘YALI Network’, ‘One African Child’ Earthplus, She is a Model International etc.

To ensure I have a louder voice and a wider reach, I founded Hope for African Girls Initiative (HAGi) at the beginning of this year. As a student, I have been motivated to work in places where I could contribute and provide value. I have performed excellently in different roles like taking care of children in my church, and taking up leadership positions in my school.

What's the core focus of HAGI, and what problem does it seek to tackle?
Hope for African Girls Initiative is a platform for implementing SDG’S goal 1, goal 4 and goal 5 in all its forms. In line with the sustainable development goals agenda, the issue surrounding women and girls’ empowerment, Gender Equality and human dignity becomes a primordial task for every stakeholder. These pressing issues led to the creation of Hope for African Girls Initiative (HAGi) with the vision of seeing the Girl-child at the centre of development and peace. HAGI is developed to improve and foster the self-actualization of the girl child’s potential for societal development. We want to see the girl child being celebrated, empowered, educated, and creating mastery of purpose, exercise of human rights and total engagement of women.
In Africa, there are a lot of challenges facing the girl-child. With detailed study over the years, these challenges have been best categorized under the niche of Education, Health and basic Human rights that shouldn't be gender depriving. The girl-child, like her awesome gender counterpart is also faced with these enormous challenges but we are compelled to attend to the more vulnerable the girl child and women at large.

Our mission is to educate and empower the girl child with the aim of enhancing their values through citizenship education, peace building, campaigns and raising awareness. If just one-girl is touched, our mission is accomplished.

What are your projects so far? And which communities have you reached to and hope to reach to?

We are supporting community-based schools in Nigeria, and Africa and our literacy effort is playing an instrumental role in ensuring that young girls in Africa have access to education. It is an investment that will give dividends to generations unborn. In the last six months, we have mentored and empowered over 1000 young girls in Nigeria.

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The programme was held in schools in Kwara, Enugu, Anambra, Lagos, Rivers,Ogun, Imo states and also in Abuja. Our next project is to hit the Northern part of Nigeria which includes Sokoto, Bauchi and Kwara, to donate 1000 school sandals to these states. And the outreach will take place from the 18th through 20th of October. We are currently running a two-month free Computer training, with about 32 students already registered.

We have also kicked off a social media campaign this week, where people on social media (Facebook and twitter) have to change their profile picture in order to join the campaign of transforming the lives of girls and fighting for their freedom.

How have you been able to drum support for the projects?

It's Challenging, It has not really been easy. My little savings, with kind donations from friends, colleagues, family members keep us going.

Do you think the projects are sustainable in local communities? Will it truly restore the joy of learning?
Yes, the projects are sustainable in the local communities and it will truly restore the joy of learning because our programmes were initiated to solve women and young girls’ challenges. HAGI would promote gender equality and inspire young girls to create opportunities in education andbusiness. HAGI intends to provide the much- needed guidance for young girls by building leadership and personal skills, to give themconfidence to dream big and contribute to the society at large.

Our projects include:
1. Social Action Project: The aim of the project is to address one of the social issue affecting our communities such as
•Access to Education for all.
•Sexual Assault
•Violence against girls

A Day with a Girl Child:
To ensure a better future for our girls. They will have to be shaped and properly guided. The A Day with a Girl Child project is mainly for children between 6-13 years old. The program involves:

•Career Talks,
•Educational Discussions
•Mentoring and Quizzes.

Community Outreach: This project is mainly for the Street Girls and the less-privileged children. It includes:
• School Empowerment for female students
• Back to school: Enrolling at least 1 ‘Out-of-school’ girls in school.

A careful look at our education system in Nigeria, reveal that many pupils, especially in rural communities finish school unable to read and write. Therefore, our focus is on the quality of education and enrolment rates because we know that educating girls has multiplying effects on families and societies.

The greatest success ever recorded?

We have held numerous events, programs and outreach but the one that is still the talk of the town is the ‘Back To School’ Community Outreach where we enrolled 10 girls back to school. It was a difficult task due to paucity of funds but God did it. The girls are now doing excellently in their classes.

And another event that was very successful was the spoken words contest, which 120 tertiary institution students participated. The winner was rewarded with N100,000 cash prize.

How do you keep track of the success of your outreach(es)? How do you follow up after your events? For students that we have enrolled in school, we reach out to their parents to know of their performance. And we also do follow up. We re-visit the schools where we have held outreaches to know of strategic improvement in the schools' activities.

What are your aspirations for the nearest future?

In years to come, I want to see Hope for African Girls Initiative impacting more lives and bringing succour to underprivileged girls. I want to see thousands of girls, having their aspirations fulfilled. I desire to see more development partners, partnering with HAGi to ensure full realization of our set goals.

I desire to see HAGi being at the fulcrum, championing a campaign against child marriage & other violence against young girls.
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