Young women getting a second chance at learning
One in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. There are 13.2 million children who are out-of-school in Nigeria, according to a survey by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). With a population of about 60 million adults lacking basic literacy skills, Nigeria also has an exponential rate of adult illiteracy.
Mercy Corps Nigeria is responding to the growing need for educational interventions specifically for marginalized adolescents and youth with no formal education. Here is how we are ensuring it is never too late to learn for these young women living in the outskirts of Lagos State, Nigeria.
Abiodun Muritala (aged 21), Airat Akinwale (aged 22) and Halimat Ajao (aged 24) dropped out in their last year of primary school because their parents could not afford to pay their school fees, giving up on their dreams of completing school.
However, their interest was reignited when they learned about Mercy Corps’ Educating Nigerian Girls In New Entreprises (ENGINE II) program which provides out-of-school adolescent girls with basic literacy and numeracy skills, financial literacy training and skills acquisition training in FCT, Lagos, Kano and Kaduna states, implemented with the support of several local civil service organizations.
“I was introduced to this ENGINE II by my sister and joined while I was pregnant, I learned soap making from the skills acquisition training.” Abiodun shares. While Halimat and Airat, who was encouraged by her husband, joined the ENGINE II girls’ fora (a safe space/ girls’ club) first, before signing up for the basic literacy and numeracy classes with the ENGINE II program in June 2018.
Abiodun, Airat and Halima were all keen to learn how to read and write again, they took the lessons very seriously which made the facilitators notice their hard work and commitment to learning. The facilitators encouraged them to take part in the Lagos State Agency for Mass Education 2019 EKO N KO EKOO Quiz Competition for adult learners. They competed in two preliminary rounds with over 400 other adult learners and passed. Their efforts were rewarded when they received an invitation to compete in the final competition.
"This really encouraged me, because I could not believe I could pass like that and be called to go to Lagos!" Airat shares.
For the Quiz competition, they participated in the English category and emerged amongst the top 20 finalists in Lagos State. Abiodun, Airat and Halima all received consolation prizes for this amazing achievement during the award-giving ceremony. When asked how they felt and their plans for the future, they said.
Abiodun tells us, “I have learned how to save and I am really grateful because my life is different. Now I own a business where I make soap, cream, olive oil and insecticide, which I hope to expand someday and supply others in large quantities.”
Airat who owns a small-scale provision store shares how it helps her and her business “I am really happy I joined ENGINE. I can now read, write, do addition and subtraction which really helps my business and I learned how to communicate well with my customers. Also, I learned how to save and was able to open an account with Access Bank. I really learned a lot."
“The literacy and numeracy skills that I learned in the ENGINE II program has enabled me to teach my 6-year-old child in primary school which I couldn’t do before,” Halimat says she wants to go back to school to learn more.
Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE) II is a three and half year (April 2017 – September 2020) Adolescent Girls’ Education Program funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through its Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) Fund. Mercy Corps leads the implementation of ENGINE II in Nigeria, along with Society for Women Development and Empowerment of Nigeria (SWODEN) in Kano, Action Health Incorporated (AHI) in Lagos, Kindling Hope Across Nations Initiative (KHAN) in Kaduna and Tabitha Cumi Foundation (TCF) in the Federal Capital Territory.