SBV: WARIF Empowers 6,441 Girls

The Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), though its impactful initiative, the WARIF Educational School Program (WESP) for girls, has empowered about 6,441 young girls in 56 secondary schools, across three geopolitical zones in Nigeria in 2023

The primary objective of the WESP is to equip female adolescents in senior secondary schools with the necessary knowledge and tools to identify, prevent, and respond appropriately to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV). This innovative curriculum, specially designed and implemented by WARIF, provides adolescent girls with insights into recognizing signs of sexual assault and rape, self-protection strategies, and measures to prevent such occurrences.

With an alarming surge in rape and sexual violence cases across Nigeria, this issue demands urgent attention and collective action. In collaboration with Sony Music, WARIF has extended the WESP initiative to encompass five additional secondary schools in Lagos State and three in Ogun State. The project’s key activities included stakeholder engagement, baseline surveys, in-class training sessions reaching 600 girls, peer-to-peer activities, parent-teacher forums, and comprehensive closeout activities.

The founder of WARIF, Dr. Kemi DaSilva Ibru, in a press statement made available to LEADERSHIP, disclosed that the program received official endorsements from five schools in Lagos state (Government Secondary School Maroko, Akande Secondary School, Ilado Senior Secondary School, and Government Secondary School Ikoyi and three schools).

In Ogun state, Egba Comprehensive High School, Asero Senior High School and Government Technical College Idi Aba were approved by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology in Ogun State for project implementation, Ibru added.

The founder, while revealing the curriculum of the program, stated that, “The in-class sessions, conducted over four days in each participating school, employed the structured WESP curriculum, divided into four modules: My Body and I, what is Abuse, Unmasking the Abuser, and Steps to Reporting Abuse. The peer-to-peer activities ran from June 2023 to November 2023 across all participating schools in Lagos and Ogun states, reaching a total of 4,116 students.”

She however assured that WARIF remains dedicated to its mission of eradicating gender-based violence by empowering and educating the youth to foster a safer and more inclusive society.

The project evaluation upon completion reported significant positive changes in the students’ attitudes, as observed by the interviewed teachers: Increased discipline among students, heightened awareness and consciousness about appropriate dressing, improved hygiene practices and consciousness of personal cleanliness, heightened awareness of bodily changes, particularly menstrual flow, and a more composed demeanour among students.

Teachers also noted a remarkable shift in behaviour, with beneficiaries and indirect beneficiaries (trained by direct beneficiaries through peer-to-peer outreach) demonstrating increased awareness and reporting inappropriate behaviour, which was previously unreported. For instance, a teacher shared that, prior to the program, one of her students find it difficult to express herself. “But after completing the programme, she is now very open. She would come to me, to discuss things about herself,” the teacher revealed.