Girls Arise Initiative

It was sometime in October 2016. I got a mail from a friend I had met few months back via World Pulse; an online community of women changemakers. My friend, Bimbo Adegbite had read about our work with Ijegun girls on World Pulse and was keenly interested in partnering with us to mentor and assist them to maximize their potentials. A girls-right advocate herself, Bimbo is a highly resourceful and kind-hearted woman who upholds that every girl should be empowered to be her best. And so from January 2017, she began to engage the girls through her call-in-sessions, at our monthly meetings. Through this medium, she was able to add her voice to such topics as Goal Setting, My Future Ambition, Friendship, Mentorship etc. By March, Bimbo saw the need to engage the girls more closely through one-on-one mentorship. So she came up with the idea of buying telephone sets for each of the girls and getting a team of amazing and equally resourceful women to serve as adult friends and call th

When Olamide first gained admission into secondary school, she had high hopes of passing with flying colors. She also had plans all mapped out to head on to nursing school, earn a degree as a registered nurse, and practice the profession she is so passionate about. She looked forward to being one of the best caregivers in town and someday raising a healthy, beautiful family. She was 12 years old then, the first of five children raised by indigent and estranged parents. In spite of the challenges at home, Olamide demonstrated great courage and hope for a better life. But her father had left home, and without him she lacked mentorship and guidance. At age 17, she became involved in a relationship with a young man named Rotimi, and one year into that relationship, she got pregnant. As a result, she suffered rejection and ridicule, as is customary in this culture. She had to drop out of school. Back home, her parents expressed utter disappointment and refused to support