Technological Support for Aiding Humanity (TechSAH) Initiative paid advocacy visits to selected secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. The visit was orchestrated under the “Engaging Key Opinion Leaders (community, educational, religious, traditional) to Secure Support for Women and Girls Access to SRHR and Prevention of VAWG/SGBV/HP” Project being implemented by TechSAH with support from UNESCO through the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative.

The advocacy visits were aimed at establishing ties and securing the buy-ins of the schools on the project. The visits were also aimed at sensitizing the school management on the ills of Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV), Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Harmful Practices (HP) in school-related settings. The school management and teachers are another integral component of the education sector, hence the need to sensitize them on the subject matter and get their buy-ins to sustain the implementation of this project.

During the visits to the schools, Mr Chinedu Gbulie, Project Director at TechSAH Initiative intimated the school representatives on the reason for the visit, stating that it was very vital to bring issues of SGBV, VAWG and HP to the fore and that teachers and the school staff as a whole are at the centre of curbing it. He went further to give a presentation of the “Engaging Key Opinion Leaders (community, educational, religious, traditional) to Secure Support for Women and Girls Access to SRHR and Prevention of VAWG/SGBV/HP” project, narrating its overall goal, aims and objective and the strategies with which it would be carried out. Chinedu zeroed in on the necessity for an intervention of this nature. In his speech, he touched on the sad state of VAWG and SGBV in school settings, expressly stating that these kids spend a lot of time in school settings (in the school or around the school) and need to be guided as it relates to SGBV/VAWG and HP when in the school settings.

The visits yielded positive results as all the selected schools were happy to receive the TechSAH-Spotlight delegation and threw in their support and commitments for the project. The schools were further briefed on the activity schedule of the project to guide them on their level of participation. The visits ended with the TechSAH-Spotlight delegation presenting the advocacy materials to the school representatives.