Her Voice Foundation has concluded its “Girls To Women: Stronger. Bolder.” project after nearly two years of interventions supporting adolescent girls, teenage mothers and at-risk girls in Cross River State.
The project, implemented between June 2024 and March 2026 with support from IGNITE, Inspiring Girls and Grassroots Networks for Inclusive and Transformative Education, combined second-chance education, livelihood support, advocacy and community mobilisation to address barriers preventing girls from accessing education and protection systems.
According to the foundation, the project directly reached 5,098 people, including 1,300 adolescent girls and 3,798 community members and stakeholders. The wider community reach involved 2,300 women and 1,498 men and boys.
Speaking on the project’s impact, Executive Director of Her Voice Foundation, Favour Abatang, said the support received helped strengthen the organisation’s advocacy efforts and institutional capacity.
“IGNITE’s trust was transformative. Trust that we, as young women, have the expertise and lived experience to lead this work,” Abatang said.
The organisation said advocacy became one of the project’s most significant achievements, shifting from what it described as “urgent community responses” to a more structured approach involving documentation, public engagement and evidence-based follow-up.
As part of the intervention, the foundation organised six community dialogues involving 765 participants, including parents, traditional rulers, religious leaders, caregivers, government representatives and young people.
Discussions focused on girls’ education, teenage pregnancy, harmful practices and community protection systems.
Her Voice Foundation said more than 200 traditional and religious leaders participated in advocacy engagements, while 440 men and boys publicly pledged support for girls’ education and rights. At one intergenerational dialogue, the organisation said 80 per cent of stakeholders committed to actions aimed at helping girls remain in or return to school.
The foundation said these commitments were important because many of the barriers affecting girls stem from stigma, silence and restrictive social norms.
“Teenage mothers and at-risk girls don’t only need programmes. They need communities that stop blaming them and start supporting them,” the organisation said in a statement.
One of the communities the foundation reached by was Ablesang, where teenage pregnancy had contributed to high dropout rates among girls.
The organisation said community leader Chief Shikishong Jeremiah became an advocate for girls’ education during the project after initially underestimating its importance.
“I now understand the importance of girls’ education, and I am actively mobilising learners in my community to take part in the literacy and numeracy skills programme,” Jeremiah said.
According to the foundation, Jeremiah encouraged parents to enrol their daughters in school and personally visited homes to speak with families about keeping girls in education.
The literacy and numeracy programme in the community recorded a 100 per cent retention rate, with all 27 girls who enrolled completing their examinations.
The organisation also reported behavioural and social changes among some participants, noting that several girls left relationships that discouraged their education and returned to supportive family environments.
Beyond community engagement, Her Voice Foundation said the project expanded public conversations around girls’ education and teenage motherhood through media visibility and digital advocacy.
The organisation produced seven documentary pieces and participated in television interviews and magazine publications focused on the realities facing teenage mothers and at-risk girls.
Its digital advocacy campaign, #MyRightToLearn, reportedly reached more than 30,000 people, while over 20 advocacy posts generated more than 90,000 impressions across online platforms.
Overall, the foundation estimated that its advocacy and visibility efforts reached over 121,200 people through media engagement, public events and coalition activities.
The project also strengthened the organisation internally, improving financial systems, documentation processes, digital infrastructure and staff capacity. Her Voice Foundation said it was selected among the top 18 civil society organisations to receive IGNITE top-up funding based on programme delivery and reporting performance.
Despite the formal close of the project, the organisation said its work on girls’ education and advocacy would continue.
Now in its sixth year, Her Voice Foundation said it plans to build on the partnerships, visibility and advocacy systems developed during the project to deepen support for young mothers and at-risk girls across communities.
“Girls To Women: Stronger. Bolder. showed us that advocacy is how silence becomes voice, how voice becomes visibility, and how visibility becomes change,” the organisation said.