GIRL CHILD CONCERNS
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Mission Statement
Girl Child Concerns (GCC) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working to improve the status, health and wellbeing of women and girls in Nigeria. It provides holistic interventions that meet the needs of vulnerable adolescent girls especially those from poor rural areas, disadvantaged and underserved groups like married adolescents. Our specific interventions include Adolescents Reproductive Health & Rights, Female Students Scholarships for vulnerable girls, Advocacy and community mobilization and sensitization on civil rights and responsibilities as well as gender equity. In the last four years, GCC has had a strong focus on meeting the educational and social needs of young girls affected by Boko Haram insurgency in the North East especially Borno State; giving these girls education, life skills including Sexual and Reproductive Health and mentoring. GCC has also been involved in supporting over 500 women living in IDP camps affected by Boko Haram insurgency with capital
About This Cause
Girl Child Concerns (GCC) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working to improve the status, health and wellbeing of women and girls in Nigeria. It provides holistic interventions that meet the needs of vulnerable adolescent girls especially those from poor rural areas, disadvantaged and underserved groups like married adolescents. Our specific interventions include Adolescents Reproductive Health & Rights, Female Students Scholarships for vulnerable girls, Advocacy and community mobilization and sensitization on civil rights and responsibilities as well as gender equity. GCC was established over 15 years ago with the goal of addressing the wide gender gap in girl’s enrolment in school, especially in the Northern part of the country. Secondary school enrollment rates for girls in some northern states as at when the organization started operation in 2004 were estimated to be as low as 15%. Girls in the Northern part of the country were faced with numerous barriers to education, including poverty and cultural expectations. In the last four years, GCC has had a strong focus on meeting the educational and social needs of young girls affected by Boko Haram insurgency in the North East especially Borno State; giving these girls education, life skills including Sexual and Reproductive Health and mentoring. GCC has also been involved in supporting over 500 women living in IDP camps affected by Boko Haram insurgency with capital and have set them up in viable economic activities which is giving them dignity and agency thus reducing their chances of trading sex for livelihood commonly seen in internally displaced camps. GCC has offices in Kaduna, Abuja and Maiduguri, a board of trustees which gives policy direction to the organization and a complement of full time and volunteer staff in all three offices. GCC currently has projects supported by Malala Fund, IHP USA and UNFPA. It had previously been supported by Ford Foundation and Action Aid. Girl Child Concerns has strong partnerships with organizations that share the same focus. We also have strong network of religious leaders and traditional rulers as well as youth groups. GCC has a good track record of community mobilization for social change and advocacy to government that result in tangible action to address identified development needs. We believe that if stakeholders in communities understand their needs, rights and responsibilities and are empowered to take action, they can be good catalyst for social change and reforms including good education, education of girls, social justice and equity as well as transparency and good governance. Our community mobilization strategy is designed to mobilize and strengthen the capacity of the people at the local level through information sharing on their rights and entitlements, which will galvanize them into becoming more engaged citizens that demand for good governance, leading to an accountable government that is concerned with effective and efficient delivery of core governance process as well as provision of public goods and services. We have achieved impact through advocacy and community mobilization on improving access to improved Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) with our intervention for Girls and adolescent Mothers on RMNCH in select communities in Kaduna state. With support from Champions for Change we were able to create health spaces for married adolescents in their communities to improve maternal and child health. We equally piloted boys spaces in the community, considering the importance of boys as change agents in supporting girls empowerment and the learning was awesome. Presently, we are implementing a UNFPA supported Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) project in 9 LGEA Primary Schools in Kaduna state. The objective of the project is to improve reading and writing among girls in primary 6 and improve enrolment, transition from primary to secondary school as well as completion. The project is designed around creating after School Safe Space clubs, has been able to reach 750 primary 6 school girls with life skills, numeracy and literacy. The girls are mentored by female teachers in their schools once a week for two hours. The project includes mentor trainings and strengthens the capacity and skills of 38 female primary school teachers who have been selected and trained as mentors. GCC is set to reach 2775 girls by December 2017. Under our scholarship scheme, GCC has been empowering and promoting girl child education and provides educational support to young people through its Female students scholarships scheme, safe spaces and life skills development. Through a comprehensive approach the scholarship scheme empowers the girl-child not only with formal education but equips her with general life skills, sexuality education and in the process age of marriage is delayed. Over 275 girls have graduated from secondary school under the scholarship scheme and we have about 300 presently placed in various girls boarding schools in four states (kaduna inclusive) across the North and 85 out of them are from Yobe and the IDP Camps in Borno. It is our ambition to enroll 100 girls every year under the scheme and this year alone 75 beneficiaries graduated from secondary school, 42 of whom are the chibok school girls that escaped from their abductors in 2014. In GCC we have identified collaborating with government and building partnership as a strong strategy to entry and sustainability. To that effect GCC puts great emphasis on collaborating with both national and state governments in its region and states of intervention. This include government at the central or federal and states like Kaduna, Katsina, Plateau and Borno states. Under such collaborations and partnerships with government, Girl Child Concerns is presently serving as a member of two Technical Working Groups at the National level and one in Kaduna state. GCC is a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) set up to improve coordination, knowledge and implementation of safe spaces in Nigeria and a member of the sub committee on national curriculum development for Safe spaces chaired by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). The objective of the sub committee is to collaboratively develop a comprehensive and standardized stand-alone safe spaces curriculum and manuals for girls’ aged 10-19. GCC has spear-headed wider consultation with stake-holders in Kaduna Zone to ensure the initiative has the support, buy in as well as technical contribution of key stakeholders. GCC is also a member of the National Technical Working Group on Ending Child Marriage which is Chaired and coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. In Kaduna state. The TWG has successfully supported spear-headed the AU launch of ending child marriage in Nigeria and the launch of the country National Strategic Plan to End Child Marriage in Nigeria 2016 – 2021. The aim of the strategic plan is to highlight the multi-sectoral, multi- faceted activities needed to bring about successful elimination of this harmful practice based on the premise of a strengthened coordination platform led by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. In Kaduna State, GCC under the umbrella of the Gender Working Group is a member of the Technical working Group on Gender mainstreaming coordinated by the state ministry of women affairs. Apart from providing girls affected by the insurgency in the North East to return back to school under our intervention for the North east. GCC has equally empowered 500 women in IDP camps in Borno with start up capital and tools to start trade and economic activities. The project is a revolving scheme aimed at reintegrating women in IDP camps back to normal life by empowering and financially supporting as many of them as resources permit in cap knitting and other trades. To ensure others benefit, GCC created and activated a market chain to ensure the end products are sold at competitive prices and the sales proceeds are used to support other women. The goal is aimed at supporting women affected by insurgency begin the process of rebuilding their lives in dignity. We are also sponsoring another 42 girls back to school in Imam Malik secondary school, a private school in Borno metropolis. To strengthen our engagement in Borno, GCC is establishing a Girls Academy in the state with learning activities taking off in the next school session in September this year. The academy is aimed at reintegrating vulnerable adolescent girls affected by the insurgency from the North East which has the highest indices of out of school children with girls constituting a higher percentage back to normal life, by enrolling them into secondary schools within Borno metropolis, so that they can complete their secondary education. The project will adopt the India Kahn Academy concept which empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside the classroom through class lessons, practical exercises, instructional videos and a personalized learning dashboard. GCC has also entered into partnership with King Muhammad the VI (six) of Morocco to set up a skills acquisition center in Borno. Already, land has been provided by the executive governor of Borno state for that purpose and discussions have reached an advanced stage with the signing of an MOU with the Moroccan team. The center when completed will train young men and women in different skills to provide skilled manpower in rebuilding and reconstructing the various sectors and areas destroyed by insurgency. GCC is a recipient of the Girl Effect University (GEU)grand prize video storytelling award. this was in recognition of our outstanding work with girls. The Grand Prize will included the production of a professional video that tells the story of our organization’s work with adolescent girls, especially our safe spaces . Below is a link to the professional-quality video which was produced by the Nike Foundation. Link: https://vimeo.com/123461770 Password: girleffectuniversity