By Foluwakemi Ogunkua, Dionna Oguna, Christopher Isah, Roselyn Odeh

A360 Nigeria focuses on adolescent girls and has continued to design various interventions to ensure they have access to quality information aiding her to effectively achieve her life goals.

However, Covid-19 movement restrictions in 2020 resulted in a vacuum, as adolescent girls could no longer access vital information on Sexual Reproductive health (SRH). To address this, A360, through its Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach, sought to leverage existing digital platforms to reach girls’ unmet needs through a few clicks. This resulted in the use of the 9ja Girls Facebook and WhatsApp platforms as safe spaces for adolescent girls to get adequate information without leaving the comfort of their homes.

On 9ja Girls’ platforms, A360 trained personnel offers on-the-go counseling to adolescent girls aged 15-19 years. Girls can ask questions on various topics, access information and emergency referral services. The platform has a range of topics that tackle the pressing needs of 9ja girls target group, such as Life; goal setting, values, self-esteem, and negotiation skills, Love; friendship and relationship, Love; power relations, boys and dating, and Health; menstruation, preventing sexual transmitted infections, sex, and pregnancy prevention, as well as demystify myths and misconceptions.

Since the rebirth, the 9ja Girls Facebook platform has equipped over 121,234 adolescent girls, receiving over 20,000 direct messages. At the same time, over 40 group chats created on WhatsApp has reached over 2,000 girls with information on LFH. 9ja Girls has also collaborated with Social Media Influencers to further engage with diverse adolescent girls. This is to ensure every adolescent girl has access to quality information on sexual reproductive health, life, and love to empower her to take charge of her life and enhance voluntary uptake of modern contraceptives.

Quotes from adolescent girls

“9ja girls is a place where I learnt a lot of things like how to set and achieve one’s life goals, how to prevent unplanned pregnancy and so much more. Ever since I came in contact with 9ja girls space, it has been helpful to me, especially in my relationship.”- Otana Blessing (19 years old).

“I had no idea that there was something like sexual reproductive health for young girls until I joined this programme, which has help me understand my body and my health” – Oluwaseun Opabunmi (17 years old).

Click on this link below to join the 9ja Girls team:

https://www.facebook.com/9jaGirlsNow