Empowering adolescents.
Advancing rights.
Building communities.

Bold Spaces creates safe, facilitated environments where adolescents explore sexual grooming, cross-generational relationships, and personal safety. Sessions are led by a three-person Champion team using comics, animations, and flashcard activities. Each activated site is sustained through monthly revisits.

In 2025, Bold Spaces was our most active area of delivery — 50 outreaches completed across the year, with the integration of animation consistently cited as the strongest driver of sustained engagement among younger audiences.

I learned the importance of waiting for the right time to take certain decisions and to avoid bad company. Divine Michael · 16–18 · TOM Camp Lagos

The Good Cycle Initiative delivers menstrual health education and product access through community Pad Stations in schools, IDP camps, and correctional settings. Our Good Cycle Delegates facilitate sessions on menstrual hygiene, product use, and the social dimensions of menstruation.

The most consequential moment of the year came in May, when our Adamawa team inaugurated the Boranji Community IDP Pad Station — the first self-service menstrual product hub in that camp. We also closed two Pad Stations at Apo Wassa and Malaysia IDP camps, where recurring early marriages broke continuity faster than we could rebuild it. Both lessons inform our 2026 design.

I have learnt that I shouldn't use my body to look for money because there are certain ways that I can be helped to take care of my menstrual period. Participant · Boranji IDP Camp · Adamawa

The Outreach Youth and Adolescent Lab Fellowship is our flagship youth leadership programme. The 2025 cohort was the first to complete every phase from training through to funded community implementation, running February to November.

Forty fellows were selected from 334 applicants — ten per cluster across Menstrual Equity, FGM, Child Marriage, and Sexual Grooming. Five proceeded to mini-grant funding, with their projects reaching 2,566 individuals across Oyo, Kogi, Cross River, Jigawa, and Borno States.

The programme moved me from conducting one-off advocacy efforts to creating sustainable change. Usman Bashir Abubakar · FGM cluster · Borno

VAV runs as a year-round advocacy platform — monthly virtual discussions aligned to key calendar moments, anchored by our flagship annual convening, #VAV25. The 2025 theme: "The Power of Youth in Advocacy: Bridging Generations to Combat Gender-Based Violence."

The convening drew 104+ adult guests, four exhibitors, twelve volunteers, and press coverage from New Telegraph and Standard Times. Ninety per cent of attendees reported being extremely satisfied with the event. The most important feedback we received: "Involve more men in these conversations." Male representation on the #VAV26 panel is now non-negotiable.

The event was like an echo chamber — women speaking to women. Involve more men in these conversations. Attendee feedback · #VAV25 · Abuja

For International Women's Day, we ran a coordinated multi-state campaign on sexual grooming, cross-generational relationships, and self-protection — using comics and flashcard activities across 15 schools. The largest single coordinated reach window of our year.

Adamawa anchored the campaign with 1,000 girls across three schools. FCT followed with 1,219 across five schools. Kaduna, Lagos, and Nasarawa rounded out the rollout. 15,000 comic books and 40 flashcard packs were donated to school libraries for continued use. Several teachers and counsellors registered interest in joining Hand-to-Mind clubs as ongoing supporters.

What if a groomer forced you to accept gifts? What if the groomer is a relative? Student questions · Junior Secondary School Garki · Abuja

A.G.E.N.C.Y. — Advocacy, Guidance, Empowerment, Nurturing & Community for Youth — is the single delivery umbrella that houses every form of human capital in our network: State Coordinators, volunteers, Bold Spaces Champions, Good Cycle Delegates, OYAL Fellows, and alumni.

In 2025 the network ran with 9 State Coordinators and 32 active volunteers. Adamawa and FCT recorded the strongest delivery; Kaduna and Nasarawa followed; Akwa Ibom and Lagos third. Enugu was set aside during the year because we were unable to recruit and retain a functional volunteer team — a gap we will address in 2026 with a more disciplined recruitment process.