WASH in School programs:
Eco-friendly reading rooms created in schools with age-appropriate reading materials to enhance literacy on WASH and menstrual hygiene and these three key components are meant.

Education: Teachers trained to teach handwashing, menstrual hygiene management, WASH integrated into the curriculum, attendance begin taking daily attendance, and supervise daily group handwashing at mealtimes.

Facilities: Establish low-cost, improved water supply, hand washing facilities, and gender-segregated toilets and WASH conditions meet and regular maintenance is ensured.

Behavior change: Daily supervised handwashing before school meals and at group toilet times. All students always use the sanitation facilities and actively participate in tasks to keep the facilities clean, and Community members involved.

Menstrual Hygiene Education

Our MHM program is innovative/disruptive because Hope and Dreams Initiative is transforming and changing the narrative in the Nigerian public schools into a place for girls to thrive through the creation of WASH reading rooms with sanitary pad boxes/ washing stations, a yearly festival to educate and inspire girls, and to thereby elevate the dialogue on the importance of MHM.

Our yearly menstrual hygiene festival includes:

Q&A information sessions about menstruation as part of growing up, and different options for safely managing menstruation, in these sessions’ boy students wrote messages of hope/encouragement for the girls.

MensTed Talk –We replicate the TED stage, and our students present a talk on their period experience.

Theatre piece about menstrual hygiene and girl empowerment. The performance highlights the importance of inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene facilities at schools, and the importance for schools, parents, and government to allocate enough money to support girls and women during menstruation.

An art healing session where everyone paints on a canvas and express their thoughts and feelings about menstruation, the piece created is usually auctioned off to raise money for the purchase of sanitary kits.

Health talk and demonstration with dummies/ organizational menstrual cards by an in-house health personal on Menstrual Hygiene, these talks include what to expect before and after menstruation.

Interschool Men’s-symposiums – Topics are usually given ahead of time and schools present at the yearly festival.

Sexual Reproductive Health education

Adolescence is a unique window of opportunity to shape healthy and successful development. Unfortunately, millions of young people around the world are vulnerable to threats like early marriage, school dropout, unemployment, violence, HIV, and unplanned pregnancy. Twenty-one million girls get pregnant before the age of 19 every year.

Our SRHE program includes HIV/AIDS enlightenment talk in secondary schools and households, HIV/AIDS testing and counselling by an in house counsellor, workshops and seminars, we also integrate family planning services into SRHE care so that women can easily access information and contraceptives.

Hope and Dreams Initiative is working to provide high-quality health information and services to youth as well as adults. Hope and Dreams Initiative envisions a world where all young girls have the knowledge, skills, capacity, and opportunities they need to transition into a healthy and productive adulthood.

Gender base Violence:

Hope and Dreams Initiative believe every person has the right to a life free from violence. We put gender equality and the safety and dignity of women and girls at the centre of what we do. Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global problem of epidemic proportions that demands committed action and sustained resources. We are addressing the root causes driving gender-based violence (GBV) and supporting survivors, including eliminating GBV and increasing women and girls’ voice, leadership, and education. Hope and Dreams Initiative will accomplish this in part by addressing multiple forms of GBV, including:

• Intimate partner violence
• Sexual violence, harassment, exploitation, and abuse
• Child, early, and forced marriage, and other harmful traditional practices
• Gender norms, toxic masculinities, homophobia, and transphobia
• Economic exploitation and exclusion of women and girls

 We work with women, men, adolescents and youth, girls, boys, communities, and local organizations to transform harmful gender norms and attitudes that perpetuate GBV, and promote healthy, equitable and non-violent relationships.

Hope and Dreams Initiative ensure that our projects take steps to reduce the risk of GBV and address disclosures of GBV appropriately. This means being deliberate about reducing risks, raising awareness, and linking survivors to services—no matter what the program, whether it’s food security, water, education, or health. Hope and Dreams Initiative aim to ensure that women, girls, and marginalized groups are safe, respected and valued.

Hope and Dreams Initiative provides services to GBV survivors directly and through partners: first-line support (empathetic counselling, safety planning, and referrals), health care (clinical management of rape and sexual and reproductive health and rights), legal support, psycho-social support, economic opportunities, and referral system strengthening.

We work to develop and strengthen the passage and implementation of policies, laws, and systems that prevent GBV and uphold survivors’ rights.

Sister’s Becoming Women

Communities thrive when a girl & her family are protected & equipped with proper education. Our sister’s becoming women program gathers young ladies in communities, who are single mothers, drop out, abused or living with HIV to educate, inspire and equip with the communication skills necessary to succeed in and lead male-dominated workplaces. Through developing and performances, our girls learn to own the room – be it a courtroom, operating room, or boardroom. We start by equipping them with basic life skills and go on to capacity building on Leadership for self-actualization, skills acquisition, Educational and psycho-social supports, and Skill acquisition for economic self-reliance. These young women are gaining confidence to stand up for what they believe in, becoming advocates for themselves, starting small businesses to support themselves and their families.

Through the Sister’s Becoming Women program we are engaging girls and young women as partners and co-designers, we co-create innovative, sustainable solutions that reflect their priorities, needs and vision.

 

Sister’s Becoming Women supports girls as they safely transition into adulthood and create the futures, they want for themselves. We ask questions, listen and co-create sustainable change based on their ideas.