By Lola Ayanda
As part of the activities to assist vulnerable children from poor households and students with disabilities, ActionAid and Rural Women and Youth Development engaged in intense sensitisation on the COVID-19 pandemic and the prevention methods.
The intervention involved the distribution of about 500 transistor radios to girls in safe spaces to enable them to continue their studies during the period. Also, there was training for girls and women on making locally made facemasks and hand sanitisers. The impact of the programmes was reflected in improved grades and enhanced self-confidence of the students.
One beneficiary of the COVID -19 support is 16-year-old Mairi Salihu. Mairi, who wakes up at 5 a.m, immediately sets out of the house with empty kegs to fetch water. After which she would move around the neighbourhood where she sells the water to raise money for school.
“From the age of 8, I began to sell water. I had to sell water every day to enable me to go to school, if I do not sell water, I would not be able to go to school. I remember I did not attend school for two weeks when one of my clients travelled,” she recounted.
Mairi said she makes an average of N500 every day selling water from which she pays for transport to school for herself and her siblings.
Her participation at the Safe Space has helped to shore up her confidence and the courage to continue her education despite the challenges of apparent poverty and lack of support from her parents.
“I have learnt a lot of things during the school lockdown, I have learnt better hygiene, I learnt tailoring, I learnt how to make soap and how to protect ourselves and report cases of sexual violations,” said Maria.
The Breaking Barrier project in Sokoto State is targeted at schools in bordering communities with an element of high vulnerability and high incidences of out of school children.
So far, the project is counting down at reaching 5250 girls and 300 boys in 15 schools across the state. School enrolment has also peaked because of the different activities such as the formation and monitoring of the Safe Spaces girls club, the capacity building of SBMC, Girls and other stakeholders on Advocacy, Taxation, Gender and Rights, including participation in the International Day of the Girl Child.
At the inception of the project in 2018, Maikuli Junior Secondary School and Binji Junior Secondary Schools had very low student enrolments. One year into the project in 2019, the population of Maikuli JSS increased from 20 students to 92 students, enrolment at Binji Junior Secondary School also jumped from about 70 girls to 480 girls.
Yahaya Bello, Binji JSS School principal, said the rise in school enrolment is because of advocacy and the incentives provided by ActionAid.
“ActionAid provided some facilities for vocational training; they came here to train the girls in various vocational training. This encouraged parents to begin to enrol their girl children into the school” Bello affirms.
Lola Ayanda is a Development Communications Specialist, Women’s Rights and Press Freedom Activist. Lola leads the Communications Hub at ActionAid Nigeria.
