Project Launch: 1-7-22

Arewa Girls Forum Skills-to-Wealth Project is taking place in Muchiya. Muchiya is one of the 11 wards in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State located in Northern Senatorial Zone. The most common source of income for most families in this community are farming, trading and civil service.  However, most of the community is considered as low-income. Despite the presence of several government schools in the community, very few girls are educated due to early marriage in exchange for money to provide families with financial resource. More than two-thirds of young people aged 15-19 years are unable to read a sentence in English. Only about 4% of adolescents’ complete secondary school, and girls are more likely to drop out of school than their male counterparts. By the age of 16, half the women in the community are married and expected to bear a child in the first year of marriage. 47% of women are mothers before they reach the age of 20 years. In addition, due to the current Corona Virus Pandemic, women and girls in the community have become more vulnerable and have become both victims and perpetrators of social vices including drug abuse, domestic/gender-based violence, and child marriage. Arewa Girls Forum Skills-to-Wealth Project is building upon their previously funded World Connect Project for providing vocational training skills to women and girls, by building their capacity to mobilize resources for their business as well as managing their businesses. This project will focus on 65 women who have demonstrated passion to start up their business. There will be a 5-day workshop on business plan writing, proposal writing, and business development and management. 20 participants will be supported with either a grant or a loan. Participants will also get ongoing mentorship after the 5-day workshop.