GIRLS VOICES
Building a girls’ rights movement by educating girls and women on their rights
October 11, 2013
Girls Voices Initiative was established on October 11, 2013 in honour of the International Day of the Girl and with a goal to focus the girls’ rights education and the empowerment of adolescent girls in Nigeria. On February 4, 2016 Girls Voices Initiative became a registered incorporated Trustee under the Companies and Allied Matters Act and signed by the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria. Since inception, Girls Voices Initiative has stayed committed to building the Girls’ Rights Movement in Nigeria. Join the Movement! Take Action! Add a ‘Take Action’ button here that leads to the ‘Take Action’ page.
Our mission is to build a girls’ rights movement by educating girls and women on their rights; build their advocacy skills and provide the platform for girls and women to support and promote their rights and welfare.
Our primary objective is to provide a safe community platform (physical and virtual) for girls and women to connect and share their voices through their stories and life experiences while inspiring one another to make their voices count.
Our secondary objective is to design and execute girl-centred programs and work in collaboration with other organisations that focus on girls’ and women’s issues to promote same via digital technology and digital media production.
Our Awards
Girls Voices Initiative won the 2019 With and For Girls Award for the Most Disruptive Girl-Led NonProfit Organization in Sub Saharan Africa.
Girls Voices Initiative won the 2020 BPeace Women Forward Global Award for the Next Generation Workplace naming our organization as one of the Best Place for Women to work.
Culled from the Business Council for Peace (BPeace) Website:
Girls Voices Initiative educates and empowers girl-leaders in Nigeria to use their voices to amplify issues in society. As part of their internal operations, they created the Adolescent Girls Advisory Board, comprised of young, mentored girls, to help validate, design, co-create and inspire new GVI Programs. The Monday Mentoring Meetings for staff mirrors the mentoring provided to the girls in the program. The Experimental Learning effort identifies opportunities for staff to learn new skills and try on new roles.
Carolyn Seaman, GVI Founder, commented, “Our workplace is the model for the empowerment we want to bring to Nigerian women and young girls”.
Meet
the Team
It is an absolute honour to lead a remarkable team of girl development donors, partners, girl experts, advisors, staff, volunteers, girl leaders and beneficiaries in the vibrant community of Girls Voices Initiative.
The extraordinary achievements and impact that our work inspires can only be driven by a passionate and remarkable team with a compelling goal to educate adolescent girls and women about their rights and empower them with technology and digital media skills to amplify their advocacy to stakeholders, particularly policy makers. This fuels the vibrant Girls’ Rights Movement that we support girls to build. And together, we can grow the Movement!
Titilope
Fakoya
Board Chair
Barbara
Maigari
Board Member
Carolyn
Seaman
Board Secretary
Laban
Onisimus
Board Member
Thomas-Jeffery
Seaman
Board Member
Favour
Chukwugolum
Adolescent Girls Advisory Board Chair
Peace Iyabo
Garba
Secretary, Adolescent Girls Advisory Board Member
Deborah
Olumayowa
Adolescent Girls Advisory Board Member
Aminat
Berje
Adolescent Girls Advisory Board Member
Boluwaji
Adebayo
Adolescent Girls Advisory Board Member
Esther
Amasianya
Girl Leader
Ummi
Musa
Girl Leader
Aisha
Faruk
Girl Leader
Patience
Victor
Girl Leader
Our growing team is impressive and comprise women and men as well as adolescent girls actively engaged in our leadership and in our work. Our non-profit boasts a remarkable Board of Trustees comprising well-experienced gender and media experts and activists with vast experience working with local and international development organizations. Together, our Board share great history working on several women's and girls' programmes and projects. And in the spirit of achieving girl-centred programming, our organization works with young girls and women who work with us to ensure that we position the girl at the centre of our programmes and interventions. Equally important in our organisation’s leadership is our Adolescent Girls Advisory Board who perform a critical advisory role and ensure that we continue to explore creative and innovative programs and approaches in our interventions. Our Advisory Board equally review and advise our finances to ensure that we continue to attract investment to support our programming. Our members are kept abreast of our programs via email newsletters, our website and social media posts and they also articulate their thoughts, advice and change stories via the media we reach them on.
Partners we've been working with
