In order to help prepare girls aged 10 to 20 for formal education, the Stand With a Girl Education Project (SWAGEP) offers fortnightly “safe space” sessions in the Wassa camp outside of Abuja, Nigeria. These classes emphasise vocational training, literacy, numeracy, and life skills. Families who were displaced by Boko Haram fighting are housed in the camp. The program aims to get girls back into school, especially those who were ejected due to Poverty or cultural expectations that place a higher value on boys’ education. Margaret Bolaji created SWAGEP in 2021 and used her own funds and internet campaigns to Finance its early initiatives.
Despite the international money that SWAGEP got from EMpower, issues like the cost of transit and the requirement for systemic government support still exist. 75 girls have benefited from the program, and 10 have graduated. Although there are significant logistical and financial obstacles, Bolaji wants to reach 1,000 females. There are several obstacles to girls’ education in Nigeria, particularly in areas like Wassa Camp. Nigeria has one of the highest rates of out-of-school children worldwide, with an estimated 10.5 million children not attending school, 60% of them are females, according to the United Nations International Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
As at 2021, over 600 girls were not attending school in Wassa camp.
Poverty, insurgencies like Boko Haram, and cultural norms have made this problem worse in northern Nigeria, where Wassa camp is situated. The fact that many females are married off before turning 18 further restricts their access to higher education. According to a 2021 SWAGEP study, over 600 girls were not attending school in Wassa camp alone, and the majority of them were at risk of getting married young. The difficulties that the girls in SWAGEP encounter are brought to light through their personal accounts. For instance, 12-year-old Hassana Ahmadu’s parents ordered her to leave school after the fourth grade because they were unable to pay for her and her brothers’ education.
Prior to learning about SWAGEP and applying for the safe-space sessions, Hassana stayed at home for two years. She aspires to become a nurse and now makes an effort to speak in English, impressing her mentor Christine Ibezim. Due to financial hardships, Mary Musa, another girl, missed three years of school after being displaced by Boko Haram. With SWAGEP’s help, she is currently in her last year of Secondary School at the age of 18.
Before, online campaigns were used to solicit fund for a girl’s tuition.
Margaret Bolaji, the founder of SWAGEP, started the organisation with money from her own savings as well as donations from friends and family. In the beginning, online campaigns were used to solicit money to cover a girl’s tuition, even for just one term of school. With support from EMpower, a global youth-focused nonprofit, the program saw a major uptick in 2023. Nevertheless, SWAGEP continues to confront financial difficulties in spite of this assistance, especially with regard to transportation expenses, which are considerable because of the Wassa camp’s isolated location.
Furthermore, schools frequently impose arbitrary, unanticipated fees that put a burden on the program’s resources. SWAGEP’s efforts to assist 1,000 females in going back to school have been hampered by these obstacles. SWAGEP has received significant support from the Wassa community. Bitrus Geoffrey, who chairs the camp, has grown to be an important volunteer and has praised the program’s reliability. Many organisations visit the camp and then leave after just one visit, but SWAGEP has been providing support for a long period, Geoffrey said. The community has grown to trust each other because of this constancy.
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Although the program has been successful in garnering community support, government backing has been scant. There was an educational gap for older students because the government’s 2021 trial program only offered programs up to the third grade. Even with the persistent efforts of mentors and volunteers like Aye Habila, the program’s reach is still restricted in the absence of additional systemic support, such as the opening of a school inside the camp. As a result, even while SWAGEP has made headway in educating displaced girls, widespread advancement is still hampered by the intricate problems of money, cultural norms, and a lack of government support.