ACE Charity in partnership with Malala Fund is implementing a Girl Child Education Project (GCEP) in Adamawa, Borno and Kano states. The goal of the project is to advocate for the re-enrolment of 1200 Out-Of-School Girls (OSGs) in government secondary schools in the project states. The project also aimed to advocate for the ratification of the child’s right act (CRA) and the amendment of the universal basic education (UBE) act to ensure free education for 12 years. ACE Charity is currently working with key stakeholders to ratify the CRA in Adamawa state.

To support ongoing efforts to improve girl child education outcomes in the states, ACE Charity initiated the Educate a Northern Girl (ENG) campaign. We raised funds/materials to facilitate the re-enrolment of OSGs back into formal secondary schools and remedial learning safe spaces to ensure they stay in school by minimising the barriers that they face.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of 90% of schools in the world. Although it was a temporary measure to slow down the spread of COVID-19, it is estimated that about 20 million schoolgirls could remain out of school even after the COVID-19 crisis has passed. Previous data has shown that school closures during past disease outbreaks in other countries hit girls the hardest. Poverty, teenage pregnancy, and child labour resulting from these outbreaks led to decreased enrolment rates for girls when schools resume.

ACE Charity, with support from Malala Fund implemented a project to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on girl child education in Adamawa State to put in place a gender responsive enrolment plan which will enable girls return to school upon resumption of school activities. This project was conducted in Adamawa state to build the capacity of three key stakeholders (community leaders, teachers and school girls), by carrying out advocacy and sensitisation activities on the importance of girl-child education and the need for girls to return to school at resumption. To achieve this, we held virtual meetings with 35 community and religious leaders in Adamawa State, trained 75 schoolteachers to be girl-child/education advocates and trained 15 girls to be girl-child education activists to champion discussions and campaign on girl-child education in their communities. The school girls have formed clubs in their schools and are currently sensitising their peers on the importance of girl-child education.