EmpowerHer: Advancing Women’s Safety and Leadership Through Education
With every woman denied opportunity, a community suffers. In today’s world, women empowerment is more than just a trendy catchphrase, drawing attention from stakeholders and benefactors alike. Across Africa, millions of women and girls are rising above deeply rooted barriers that once restricted their voices, choices, and futures.
From classrooms to community halls, education is proving to be one of the most powerful tools for safety, equality, and leadership. To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, AODI’s EmpowerHer Initiative shows how learning transcends changing individual women to entire societies. We’ll explore how education facilitates gender equality, female empowerment, and an overall safer world for women.
The fight against gender-based violence in Africa
Meet Aminata, an 8-year old girl in a rural West African village. She is married to an abusive, older man, who doesn’t permit her to attend school. Tola, a 14-year old living with her older brother, enduring abuse in silence under threats and fear. Both girls walk around with dropped heads and loud silence, burdened with shame and fear.
Unfortunately, stories like these are startlingly common. In Sub-saharan Africa, more than 79 million girls and women have been sexually assaulted before the age of 18 (UNICEF). In Southern Africa alone, around 17% of girls and women have experienced forced sex in their lifetime (UNICEF).
When young girls are denied schooling and subjected to violence, they lose momentum, financial opportunities, and personal confidence, leaving them vulnerable and silent. This is a challenge that strikes at the heart of communities, affecting everyone, male, female, young, or old.
Where women are unsafe, traumatised, and shut out of learning, local economies shrink, social bonds weaken, and unhealthy relational dynamics widen rapidly. In societies where girls like Aminata and Tola are meant to influence lives, their silence creates a void that hinders development.
Join us in shaping a safer, stronger future for girls and women.
Your support helps provide life-changing education, leadership training, and community protection initiatives that empower young women to rise, lead, and thrive.
Stand with us, be part of the movement.
by Chinonyerem Obioha
