A One- day high-level stakeholders Engagement on the Reintegration of Adolescent Mothers and married girls into school project has been held in Kaduna, North West Nigeria.
The project which is being implemented by Teenage Network, a non-profit organisation supported by Malala Fund, is focusing on adolescent to promote equal access to education, health and well being for girls.
The project has already impacted girls across FCT, Nasarawa, Enugu, Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo and Ondo States with the latest entry, Kaduna which has in place, Continuing Education programme by the Department of Mass Literacy, AGILE project and Reaching Out- Of-School Children.
Giving an overview of the project on Tuesday, the Programm Officer, Grace Maikano observed that while the Kaduna State Government was actively working to reduce the number of out-of- school children from over Seven hundred thousand to One hundred thousand, child brides and adolescent mothers can not afford to be left behind.
The project, she said, would therefore support the government to build an investment case for the reintegration of Adolescent Mothers and child brides into school. In addition, it would also develop a comprehensive integration guideline for the State and build the agency of selected adolescent mothers and child brides .
The Program Officer disclosed that child marriage prevalence remains high in Nigeria with 44% of girls married before the age of 18, totalling over 24 million child brides, ranking third, globally.
She said although recent data suggests in national prevalence from 44% to 30% , progress has been slow and uneven, particularly affecting the poorest house holds, rural areas and girls with little or no education.
Earlier in her opening remarks, the Executive Director of Teenage Network, Olanike Timipa- Uge who was excited with the turn out of stakeholders reaffirmed the commitment of the organisation to developing a coordinated framework that would ensure that no girl is left out of school in Kaduna State.
Meanwhile, the stakeholders including MDAs, NGOs, CSOs, Academia, religious and community leaders have applauded the “Second Chance” education policy of the Kaduna State government which provides opportunity for those dropped out of school but desire to go back or acquire skills.
The stakeholders stressed the need for sustainability with calls for Needs Assessment and data in target community as well as skill empowerment of the adolescent.
The engagement featured a documentary of adolescent married girls narrating their mixed experience and entrepreneurship items produced by some adolescent mothers after going back to school
