Help for Mankind Initiative

Empowering pregnant teenagers to provide for their families

Help for Mankind Initiative partnered with the Zonta Club of Ibadan, Nigeria, to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy and empower pregnant teens with sustainable skills and life-skills education. Additionally, the project aimed to sensitize the community against girl child abuse, improve the teens’ standard of living, reduce gender inequality, improve self-esteem of the girls in the community and contribute to growth and development of the community/nation at large.

With a US$5,000 grant from Zonta International, the project kicked off with a flag off/opening event with 20 beneficiaries from five different communities. Advocacy skills were incorporated into the event and attendees were encouraged to be advocates against child abuse. The next event was a vocational skills training, which consisted of two weekly trainings for six weeks. The areas of focus included:

Hair-making, which focused on braiding, weave-on/braid wig making, retouching of hair and crochet.
Dressmaking, which centered on cutting fabrics for various styles, measurement and proper usage of the sewing machine.
Soap-making, which trained on liquid wash and shampoo.
Confectionary, which taught cake baking, chin-chin, doughnut, dough balls, meat pie and small chops (spring roll and samosa).

The final event, “Girls Trodden,” included another session of capacity building focused on business education and abundance ministry. In total, the program empowered 11 teenage mothers with equipment to start their own businesses, which will improve their standard of living and reduce stigmatization and discrimination.