Menstrual Equity
Period dignity, hygiene management, and the practical infrastructure — from product access to school facilities — that lets girls stay in classrooms during their cycles.
OYAL is The Smile Outreach's leadership pipeline — the part of our distribution network where young Nigerians become the people who design, advocate for, and deliver adolescent dignity in their own communities. This is what the 2025 cohort built.
From an open call across Nigeria to five funded community deployments — disaggregated by mechanism, geography, and demographic.
OYAL fellows tackle the social norms that keep young people unsafe and uninformed. We organised the 2025 cohort around four areas where Nigerian adolescents pay the highest cost: menstrual stigma, female genital mutilation, child marriage, and the grooming dynamics behind cross-generational relationships.
Period dignity, hygiene management, and the practical infrastructure — from product access to school facilities — that lets girls stay in classrooms during their cycles.
Working at the intersection of cultural change and rights — equipping fellows to engage families, traditional leaders, and faith partners on a practice that still marks far too many girls' lives.
Targeting the decision-makers — fathers, religious leaders, community heads — whose authority shapes whether girls finish school or are married before they turn 18.
The quiet harm. Helping young people recognise grooming patterns, name power imbalances, and build the language to refuse exploitative dynamics — online and offline.
After 19 proposals, an interview round, and a final selection by the TSO team, five fellows received mini-grants to deliver their projects between August and November 2025. Together, their work reached 2,546 adolescents and community members across ten implementation sites.
Abundance Dickson Uko · Government Secondary School and Government Technical College, Calabar South, Cross River State
A direct response to period poverty: 350 schoolgirls aged 10–16 were trained in menstrual health and hygiene management, and equipped with the practical skill of making reusable menstrual pads from locally available materials. School administrators and teachers were engaged early to integrate the project into the academic calendar — turning a workshop into infrastructure.
Time constraints and classroom noise emerged as practical obstacles — both addressed by scheduling additional days and bringing teachers in as co-facilitators rather than spectators.
"Through this project, I have been able to impact the lives of 350 girls so far by educating them and empowering them with sustainable skills that restore dignity and confidence." — Abundance Dickson Uko, OYAL 2025 Fellow, Menstrual Equity Cluster
Oluwatosin Victoria Toluwaloju · Government Girls School Serkin Numa & UBE Holy Trinity Secondary School, Lokoja, Kogi State
Built around the A–Z Pocket Guide on Menstruation by The Smile Outreach, PadHerRight delivered interactive sessions on the menstrual cycle, hygiene management, and period stigma — and culminated in hands-on training to make reusable sanitary pads. The project deliberately included boys, teachers, and school staff alongside the 465 girls who took part.
"The PadHerRight Campaign successfully achieved its core goals by empowering over 465 adolescent girls through improved menstrual literacy, sustainable hygiene solutions, and reduced period stigma. Engaging boys, teachers, and volunteers highlighted the power of community-driven efforts." — Oluwatosin Victoria Toluwaloju, OYAL 2025 Fellow, Menstrual Equity Cluster
Gambo Maina Bawa · Sarari, Kudai & Madobi communities, Dutse, Jigawa State
The Hausa name translates as "The Village Father, A Girl's Shield." While most child-marriage advocacy focuses on girls, Gambo built a project for the people who actually make the decisions: fathers and male heads of family. The intervention reframed the conversation from cultural critique to health awareness — particularly the medical consequences of early childbirth, including Vesicovaginal Fistula — and that pivot opened the room.
"When men are informed, engaged, and supported, they can become powerful protectors and advocates for girls — transforming fatherhood into a force for change." — Gambo Maina Bawa, OYAL 2025 Fellow, Child Marriage Cluster
Solomon Oluwatobiloba Adewole · Apete-Ayegun Community Grammar School, Ibadan, Oyo State
Solomon is a Traditional Chief — and that position is exactly what makes this project credible. Working from inside the cultural frame, End the Cut combined documentary screening, interactive discussion, and TSO's Speak Boldly: A Guide to Ending FGM resource to engage 436 students and 10 teachers at a single school, with parents and a religious leader joining the dialogue. The State Ministry of Education backed the outreach.
"End The Cut demonstrated that when education, empathy, and community collaboration align, meaningful social change becomes both possible and sustainable." — Solomon Adewole, OYAL 2025 Fellow, FGM Cluster
Usman Bashir Abubakar · Five secondary schools and the American Space, Maiduguri, Borno State
The largest deployment of the cohort. Usman ran the SHE is a Girl Campaign across five schools alongside a youth-focused film screening, working specifically with boys and young men to examine the gender norms that keep FGM alive. Post-activity assessment found 80% of participants could accurately articulate the harms of FGM, and 75% of boys committed to advocating for gender-equitable masculinities.
"When young people are given knowledge, space, and supportive tools, they become powerful advocates capable of challenging harmful norms and contributing to the long-term elimination of FGM." — Usman Bashir Abubakar, OYAL 2025 Fellow, FGM Cluster
Selected from 334 applicants across 23 states. Filter by cluster to see who's working on what — and where.
Founder of Flow with Dignity. Trained 350 schoolgirls in Calabar South in menstrual health and reusable pad-making.
Developmental communicator. Led the PadHerRight campaign across two Lokoja schools, reaching 465 girls.
Secondary school teacher and SDG advocate. Translates classroom influence into menstrual health conversations with students.
Physiotherapy student, founder of Shade of Poetry. Uses storytelling and creative expression to break period stigma.
Medical student. Channels her academic exposure to health disparities into menstrual justice advocacy.
Public administration graduate. Building a community-based youth empowerment hub in Maiduguri.
Cybersecurity undergraduate. Pairing tech expertise with menstrual health advocacy in underserved communities.
Health educator. Researched menstrual waste management; planning sustainable hygiene awareness campaigns.
Public health advocate. Building a menstrual product bank model for marginalised communities.
Digital inclusion advocate. Connecting menstrual equity to broader gender equality and public health.
Traditional Chief. Founded End the Cut — engaging 436 students and 10 teachers in Ibadan from inside the cultural frame.
Youth development practitioner. Reached 910 participants through Shifting Harmful Norms across five Maiduguri schools.
Medical doctor. Builds preventive-health interventions on FGM, working with young people and faith partners.
Legal practitioner. Five years of GBV litigation and adolescent rights advocacy across Nigeria.
Digital storyteller. Co-led the Padded Girls Project, reaching over 1,000 women and girls.
Law student at the University of Ibadan. Focused on Health Law and stronger anti-FGM legislative frameworks.
Human rights advocate. Survivor-adjacent — escaped FGM at 16, now creates safe spaces for girls in Benin City.
Disability rights advocate. Working at the intersection of disability inclusion and anti-FGM advocacy.
Public Sciences student, University of Calabar. Building survivor-support programmes alongside community education.
Public health practitioner with implementation science training. Active in Ekiti's high-prevalence FGM communities.
Founder of Uban Gari, Makamin Yarinya. Mobilised 385 fathers and male heads of family across three Dutse communities.
Educator. Helped re-enrol 11 out-of-school children by empowering their mothers with income-generating skills.
Communicator and youth advocate. Building enlightenment teams for community sensitisation in Port Harcourt.
Educational and humanitarian development practitioner. Championing children's rights enforcement in Borno.
Microbiology student at the University of Maiduguri. Focused on early girl-child marriage in his home community.
Community leader. Runs dialogues, stakeholder engagements, and sensitisation across Northern communities.
Social change advocate. Designed programmes for over 150 teenage girls in Ikot Abasi on hygiene, entrepreneurship, and language.
Legal training meets digital advocacy. Tracking Child Rights Act domestication across Nigerian states.
Creative-led advocacy through workshops, storytelling, and parent engagement on early marriage consequences.
Active in tackling harmful cultural practices, menstrual inequities, and adolescent vulnerability across Nasarawa.
Founder of CLEARMISSION — Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Nigerian secondary schools. GBV survivor.
GBV Case Manager at Lagos State DSVA. Three years of frontline trauma-informed survivor support.
Girl-Child Advocate. Almost a decade of reproductive health and rights education with adolescents.
Trained Child Protection Officer. Works with the Catholic Church Iba Deanery and the Women's Rights and Health Project.
Implemented over 50 community-impact projects across Adamawa, Benue, Kebbi, and Nasarawa.
Sexual and reproductive health educator. Workshops, outreach, and digital content for teenagers and young adults.
Teen mentor and coach. Builds support systems for pregnant teenagers and teen mothers.
Educator and girls' empowerment advocate. School outreaches on puberty, cyber grooming, and emotional wellbeing.
Medical laboratory scientist and public health expert. Designs evidence-based grooming-prevention interventions.
Public health professional and adolescent SRHR champion. School workshops and youth-friendly health services advocacy.
Cluster resource experts ran 12 structured learning sessions, reviewed proposals, and recommended fellows for funding. Their work — much of it invisible from outside — is what made the cohort what it became.
I love her sessions because she breaks down complex topics into bite-sized chunks, ensuring we grasp each concept before moving on. She's meticulous, asks questions to clarify our understanding, and uses relatable examples to drive points home — it's engaging, informative, and super effective.
I enjoyed that it is engaging and interactive, and we are all carried along. She is the best when it comes to delivering the message. A recap of the past sessions is always done at the beginning of a new session.
I loved how she owned each topic and delivered it perfectly. I also appreciate her patience with fellows.
I love the engaging, interactive sessions in subgroups in designing strategies and advocacy campaigns. Videos that tell emotional stories to drive interest, engage conversations, and influence our discussions.
A programme report that only reports successes is less credible than one that reports both. The 2025 OYAL cohort revealed real gaps in how we run a fellowship at this scale — and we're naming them so we can fix them.
Their training-phase contributions were strong. But contracting, expectations, and post-training involvement need clearer structure. Limited engagement after sessions led to delays in feedback, proposal reviews, and project supervision.
334 applications signalled high interest, but commitment varied widely. Without an interview-based screening or a shared programme roadmap up front, expectations weren't uniform — affecting engagement during reporting and post-training phases.
The platform choice and lack of a structured engagement plan made sustained peer interaction hard. Fellows connected informally, but the absence of coordinated activities reduced continuity between training phases.
Fellows needed more support translating theory into community interventions. Standardised scorecards and clearer evaluation criteria would have made the funding selection cleaner and more efficient.
Branding guidelines, reporting templates, and communications expectations for funded fellows weren't fully prepared in advance. The result: delays in visibility, progress tracking, and storytelling we now know to build in from day one.
Interview-based fellow selection. Clearer engagement timelines. Resource experts contracted across all phases. Better community engagement strategies. Standardised proposal evaluation tools. Brand and reporting frameworks ready before the cohort opens.
Concluding all scheduled funded-project activities to ensure programme objectives are fully met.
Rigorous documentation of impact stories and best practices from the five funded deployments.
A digital publication highlighting the achievements and reflections of the 2025 cohort.
The 2025 OYAL Fellowship demonstrated what becomes possible when 40 young Nigerians are given the knowledge, structure, and resources to address the social norms shaping adolescent life in their communities. We're already building the next cohort.
Learn more about The Smile Outreach →