International Day For The Girl Child: AYAHAY Foundation Providing Education To Girls And Children Displaced #DayoftheGirl

PRESS RELEASES

In line with the theme of this year’s International day for Girl child: “Girls Progress = Goal Progress”. At AYAHAY Foundation,educating the girl child is our priority. At our various centers, we have focused on more girls. As the world marks the International day for the Girl Child, we are proud to announce that the girls in our scholarship programs have the best overall grades.

Our Empowerment through Educationprogram, has constructed Early Childhood Education Centers (ECEC) in Durumi FCT Abuja and Malkohi, Adamawa State to educate internally displaced children especially by Boko Haram. We have a target of 500 women and 500 children before the end of year. The Centres offer the space, materials, and activities organized to promote exploration and learning for children between the ages of 3-6, and also psychosocial therapy for the kids. The Early Childhood Education Centers are 2 out of 10 centers that the Foundation plans to set set up in IDP camps and host communities in Northern Nigeria.

The Education program is under the AYAHAY Foundation’s Gift Basket Initiative, which was started in 2014 with the sole purpose of providingrelief materials to the men, women and children who have become internally displaced as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in North-Eastern Nigeria. This led to the birth of our Empowerment through Education Program.

Between 2014-2016, there was 89% increase in the number of IDPs, also 95% increase in the number of IDPs that were out of school. Similarly, 90% of schools were destroyed in the affected areas. The Early Childhood Education Centers are 2 out of 10 centers that the Foundation plans to set up in IDP camps and host communities in Northern Nigeria. About 92% of IDPs are living in host communities and only 8% in IDP camps.

The centers which are unique are built using mud blocks, thatch and have bamboo in the walls for ventilation. This will help keep the class cool even in the hottest days. Handmade light bulbs made of chlorine and water which reflect the rays of the sun into the classroom were inserted through the roof to provide electricity.

To ensure that our pupils get the right amount of help with their schoolwork while at home, their mothers have also been enrolled into our adult literacy classes to learn literacy and numeracy.All our teachers and instructors are Internally Displaced Persons.

AYAHAY Foundation in its efforts as part of its nationwide education outreach program in the country set up a scholarship program for bright children from Northern Nigeria. There are currently 12 students in the program who attend premier schools in Northern Nigeria such as El-Amin International School, Minna, Niger State.

AYAHAY foundation has 20 young and competent individuals in different fields, has and has since 2013 been helping women and children especially, by equipping them with relevant entrepreneurial skills and providing them with relief materials.