In a significant move to protect young women, the Beyond the Classroom Foundation (BTCF) has officially inaugurated the Safer Girls Project in Nigeria's capital.
Empowering Girls Against Violence
This crucial community activation forms part of the foundation's broader Beyond Her Odds Initiative and receives substantial support from the IGNITE Project. The program is specifically designed to equip adolescent girls with essential skills to recognize, prevent, and respond to gender-based violence in both digital and physical environments.
The workshop series will engage more than 200 girls across Bwari and Kabusa communities throughout November 2025, creating a protective network for vulnerable adolescents.
Addressing Digital Threats
The initiative strategically aligns with the UNiTE Campaign's 2025 theme for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which highlights the urgent need to combat the rapidly expanding threat of digital violence against women and girls. The program recognizes that digital safety has become fundamental to achieving genuine gender equality in today's interconnected world.
During the launch event in Abuja, Mrs. Raquel Kasham Daniel, Executive Director of Beyond the Classroom Foundation, emphasized the critical importance of this intervention. "Every girl deserves comprehensive safety - not just within classroom walls or community boundaries, but equally in online spaces," she stated passionately.
"The Safer Girls Workshop provides practical understanding of how violence manifests across different environments and builds the confidence needed for girls to speak out, seek assistance, and support each other effectively," Daniel added.
Interactive Learning Approach
The Safer Girls Workshop comprises intensive two-hour thirty-minute interactive sessions specifically designed for girls aged 11 to 16 years. The curriculum creatively combines storytelling, guided discussions, and practical safety exercises that address pressing issues including digital harassment, online grooming techniques, peer pressure dynamics, and various forms of offline abuse.
Through these engaging sessions, BTCF aims to achieve multiple objectives: strengthening awareness about gender-based violence, encouraging timely reporting of incidents, and ultimately promoting safer educational and community environments for girls throughout Abuja.
Mrs. Mayowa Adegbile, Executive Director of Ashake Foundation and program partner, praised the initiative for establishing a transformative platform that empowers girls with both knowledge and voice. "Eliminating gender-based violence requires our collective responsibility," she noted.
"Programs like Safer Girls enable us to initiate crucial conversations at an early stage, teaching girls vital self-protection strategies while ensuring schools remain genuinely safe spaces for learning and personal development," Adegbile emphasized.
The Safer Girls Workshop will be hosted across selected schools and community centers in Bwari and Kabusa, actively involving students, teachers, and school administrators in the collective mission to build safer learning ecosystems. Participating educational institutions will receive formal recognition as Safer Classroom Champions under BTCF's comprehensive Safer Girls Approach.
This community activation continues BTCF's sustained commitment through the Beyond Her Odds Initiative, which focuses on empowering adolescent girls to overcome vulnerability and inequality through integrated approaches to education, safety, and leadership development.
