The Smile Outreach Foundation and Advocates For Youth through the AMAZE initiative Partner to Empower Adolescents and Young People in Nigeria Through The “Hand To Mind Project”
In Africa, many young people grow up without proper education on crucial topics such as healthy relationships, sexual rights, and menstrual health. This gap in knowledge often places them in harmful situations like sexual grooming, child marriages, and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Additionally, many girls and women struggle with issues around menstruation due to societal taboos and lack of open discussions.
Reports show that in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 10 girls miss school during their menstrual period, leading to significant educational disruptions. Furthermore, about 40% of girls in some African countries (Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Malawi, and Zambia) do not attend school when they are menstruating. This is nearly half the female student population! These alarming statistics highlight the urgent need for comprehensive education, awareness and support on these critical issues.
To confront these critical issues head-on, Advocates For Youth through AMAZE proudly joins hands with The Smile Outreach in launching the transformative “Hand To Mind Project”. This initiative targets four pivotal themes: Sexual Grooming, Child Marriage, Menstrual Equity, and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Central to this endeavor, The Smile Outreach with the support of AMAZE will develop a flash card game for adolescents in Nigeria that addresses sexual grooming in the first year. These resources, coupled with a comprehensive training guide for facilitators, are meticulously designed to tackle these pressing areas with precision and effectiveness.
“The "Hand to Mind Project" represents a groundbreaking initiative from The Smile Outreach, designed to educate and empower young minds through a unique blend of play and learning and we are excited to be able to tackle this challenge through our partnership with AMAZE” said the founder of The Smile Outreach Bidemi Adedire”.
Through this partnership, we are counting on the expertise and experience of both organizations to amplify awareness through engaging educational resources. Adding to this, the AMAZE International Consultant for Africa, Dr Enow Awah Georges sees this collaboration as a unique opportunity to support the foundation in reaching adolescents who are socially and economically marginalized and are the most vulnerable to SRHR problems driven by poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of parental communication and negative social pressure.
This partnership signifies a shared commitment to empowering adolescents and fostering open dialogues on critical issues while equipping young individuals with the knowledge to make informed decisions, contributing to societal development and the well-being of Nigeria's youth.
About The Smile Outreach Foundation
The Smile Outreach Foundation is a grassroots nonprofit tackling communal issues in Nigeria with a focus on sexual grooming, and Cross-Generational Sexual Relationships and menstrual justice. We are passionate about gender equality, menstrual equity and sexual health and reproductive rights. Through advocacy and awareness, we strive for a future where all women and adolescents can access equal opportunities, and make informed choices, and menstrual justice is upheld, fostering a more inclusive and equitable society for generations to come.
About Advocates for Youth and the AMAZE Initiative
Advocates for Youth is a non-profit organization that implements the AMAZE Initiative, in partnership with organizations around the world. AMAZE envisions a world that recognizes child and adolescent sexual development as natural and healthy, a world in which young people everywhere are supported and affirmed and the adults in their lives communicate openly and honestly with them about puberty, reproduction, relationships, sex and sexuality. In such a world, young people across the globe would have access to the information and support they need to develop into sexually healthy adults.