By Sunny Onyekwere
December 10, 2025
A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Safe World Empowerment and Development Initiative (SWEDI) has intensively engaged adolescent school girls on mitigating climate change and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) through scaling up awareness and advocacy in the society.
This engagement, which lasted for weeks ended yesterday as the world observed the last day of the 16 Days of Activism, which doubles as the International Human Rights Day, left a select female students of Legislative Quarters Junior Secondary School, Abuja, intellectually empowered to liberate themselves, become strong voices against the menace.
Speaking at the event, Founder and Executive Director of SWEDI, Sewuese Asa, explained that the intensive engagement aimed at making girls especially those in underserved communities, to become climate change conscious, help them to navigate online spaces safely, to claim their rights and thrive in a connected world, free from harassment, abuse and bullying.
She said: “Today happens to be the last day of the 16 Days Activism on Digital Gender-Based Violence Against Women and Girls. We are standing against gender-based violence through awareness, advocacy and support.
“Prior, we had experiences of abuses, violence against women/girls offline, but with the coming of digital age, social media blasts, that has come into existence. And we are using this opportunity to give girls in our poor legislative Quarters Junior Secondary School a voice to create awareness around what’s happening online and offline.
” For them to be self-aware, for them to protect themselves, for them to see to it that they don’t fall victim of these abuses, they don’t fall victim of this harassment, they don’t fall victim of the isolation that happens, they don’t fall victim of the pain that comes with the space.
According to her, the NGO had seven consistent weeks of delving into what climate change is, bring the knowledge to them, letting them understand what climate change is, not from what they have heard, not to have a misconception, not to be in denial, but to have a clarity of what climate change is, bringing it at their own level as young adolescent girls to speak to that, and have an understanding of what it is.
When they say what is climate change, they should know what the heat waves are, they should know what the water scarcity is, they should understand what it takes to go long distances to fetch water.
They are experiencing all forms of inequalities in their homes, in their bases.
“So, we had a grand finale in this place. We had the Federal Minister of Environment, the climate change represented by the Deputy Director who sent in two representatives, and they offered institutional support by saying they will scale it up, and this pilot project that we have successfully launched here will be replicated in other schools in the FCT.
“Scholarships were offered by people who were in attendance. The UBEB, Universal Basic Education Board, that granted us this approval also made very good support initiatives”, she stated.
Also speaking, FCT UBEB representative, an Assistant Director for its Humanities Unit, Mrs. Ogunka Veronica Chineme, described the program as a reality program as the children told stories about their lives, about the environment and what is going on in the society concerning climate change.
She tasked the students on reading extensively and having a blended learning, so as to be able to understand the environment, especially climate change, what goes on around them
One of the SWEDI Ambassadors, Emmanuel Precious Gift, who expressed her gratitude for the engagement, urged everyone to always speak up when something wrong happens.
According to her, through the engagement program, she and her school mates gained more knowledge on climate change, it effects on them, how to solve it, as well as GBV in the society.
