Adeyemo Oluwabusola is the Executive Director of Gertrude Olowo Empowerment Initiative. This is her #COVIDPositiveStory.
Before the lockdown began, we were inspired by the need to support teenage girls between ages 11 – 19 years, advocating for a safe space for them with all-round education and mental awareness. Our major objective is to equip them and ensure they are prepared for life and ready to meet the world confidently. With the emergency of the pandemic, we felt the need to commence the program during this period to help engage the girls with positive activities and interactions. We knew it would be impossible to have the program physically so we decided to have the program online with all the girls initially registered and new ones that weren’t registered at all from outside our community participating in the program.
We go as far as sharing internet data to the parent and caregiver of some girls that have issues with internet data to be able to participate in the program. On the 18th of April 2020, We kicked off our standalone program in full force tagged: Gaining Insights and Real Life Skills Leadership and Development Program (G.I.R.L.S) which is running from April 2020 through to December 2020 with 20 adolescent girls’ in attendance at the first session.
So far, the support and feedback from the program have been impressive and great from all stakeholders. We usually have mentors from different sectors that helped facilitate the program and speak with the girls on different topics we layered out already. Locations of participants range from Ogun, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and the UK. Furthermore, Gertrude Girls’ Neighborhood Goody Bag of Care Kit was another project we came up with to help girls in our community remain safe and secured during this period by providing them with some sanitary materials and self-care kits to prevent them from any form of diseases. We have been able to impact the number of girls in our community with this project.
In the course of the project, most parents can’t believe that we do all that for free, they feel loved and show their gratitude every time. We receive countless messages after every session of how the program is leaving positive impacts on their girls daily. The girls love that they can learn with other girls and interact with them, they feel loved to be remembered during this period. So yes, it is a wake-up call for us and we would continue after COVID-19.
The project has made me realize that there are good people who want to give both financially, materially, and even intellectually to support others but they are not seeing that platform that fits their needs. It has also made us understand the need to emphasize being equipped with soft skills such as the use of computers and some software needed to improve our educational system.
I am inspired by how receptive my team members and volunteers have been, highly supportive of this initiative, many of them are strangers that I may never come across but for this project. I am inspired by my daily interactions with young people and my work at Gertrude Olowo Empowerment Initiative which has given me a great platform to impact every life I come across positively. My advice for my fellow youth is to stay strong and stand for everything right and true.
