9JA Girls - Southern Nigeria

In Southern Nigeria, A360’s 9ja Girls provides unmarried girls aged 15-19 with safe spaces to gain the skills and knowledge that their lives are theirs to make. This was designed with girl-centered approaches to create a strengthened, integrated health and community support system capable of working together to make sexual and reproductive health services relevant.

Our inventions are currently running in four (4) states in the South (Lagos, Ogun, Osun & Oyo).
All Countries

OUR REACH AND IMPACT

82,210

girls reached with 9ja Girl's programming

72,634

girls served with modern contraception

8 of 10

voluntarily adopting a method after engaging with A360

32%

of girls voluntarily taking up a long-acting method

Data from January 2018 through July 2020

Situational Analysis

What specific barriers do northern Nigerian adolescents face in accessing AYSRH services?

These barriers include inadequate knowledge/information about AYSRH, poor attitudes of service providers, myths and misconceptions, cultural and religious practices & beliefs, lack of finance, parental influence, stigma.

What is the unmet need for contraception among
adolescents?

In Southern Nigeria, 3 in 10 girls want but don’t have access to modern contraception. Across the nation, 1 in 4 pregnancies among this age group will end in abortion, many of which are unsafe. 9ja Girls builds from what girls say they want – flipping traditional sexual and reproductive health (SRH) messaging on its head to deliver reproductive health services when and how they need them.

Who We Are

Girls across Nigeria face deep cultural and societal challenges in accessing contraceptives. 

To address these challenges, A360 Amplify is a Five year adolescent sexual and reproductive health program implemented by the Society for Family Health (SFH) and led by Population Service International(PSI) in Nigeria to increase the voluntary uptake of modern contraceptives among sexually active adolescent girls aged 15-19years.

A360’s 9ja Girls works in Southern Nigeria – within the complexity of this system to meet these girls, and their influencers, where they are, and what they need.

Working alongside girls and stakeholders, 9ja Girls supports girls to gain the skills and knowledge to know that their lives are theirs to make, and access adolescent-friendly services.

Our Approach

9ja Girls responds to girls’ expressed desire for an opportunity to confidentially discuss body changes and life choices and gain entrepreneurial skills to support their financial independence. 9ja Girls uses these conversations as an entry point to discuss how contraception may be relevant to their self-defined goals.

  • 9ja Girls conducts advocacy visits at the community level to create an enabling environment for the girls.
  • Messages emphasize modern contraceptives use as a practice that can help girls achieve their goals.
  • 9ja Girls trained provider program facilitate mom sessions and SRH sessions to introduce the program and create awareness of the benefits of Adolescent sexual reproductive
  • Female mobilizers go door-to-door to promote 9ja Girls programming.
  • During Mom sessions, moms are engaged in a conversation about how they can support their daughters to make healthy choices.
  • Moms are encouraged to discuss modern contraceptive use with their daughters and advise them to visit the facility/ mentorship session.
  • Girls gain access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services through referral cards issued to their moms by Mobilizer.
  • Community and religious leaders have a huge impact on the decisions mothers/adolescents make, so they play a vital role in change in the attitudes and acceptances of modern contraceptive methods.
  • Empowering adolescent girls with assets (the necessary resources, skills, and competencies) needed to foster them to achieve a desired outcomes by providing agency to make their own decisions and set their own goals.
  • Youth-friendly trained providers – a combination of public sector and SFH-nested— lead counseling with girls’ goals and concerns, including side effects and return to fertility. This involves the C4C approach of counseling to save time and enable girls to make decisions on method uptake.
  • With consent, providers follow up through calls with girls after their visit – which strengthens the provider-client relationship, supporting them to continue their method of choice and ensuring continuity.

is done through routine monitoring of program activities to identify gaps and possible showstoppers before, during, and after activities. Elicit learnings and work on its adaptation.

9ja Girls User Experience

A girl hears about 9ja Girls through a female mobilizer, her mother, or a peer. She feels curious and agrees to attend an LLH class or counseling session because it feels relevant, and she feels supported by her community.

She feels invited to share her vision for the future with the service provider and is supported to see contraception as relevant and valuable to achieving her plan. Private opt-out moments or walk-in appointments make her feel safe and comfortable. She trusts and understands what she is hearing and is provided her method of choice, for free, on the spot.

She can drop into an LLH class if she wishes (or if she prefers, she goes directly for a walk-in appointment). She outlines her goals using the Life Map and learns vocational skills. She feels inspired, listened to, and supported to plan for her future.

She feels comfortable returning to the health center whenever she has questions, experiences side effects or needs more contraceptive services. She receives follow-up calls from providers and feels supported to access services. She continues to see contraception as relevant to her goals.

9ja girls program has helped our [spoilt girls] in this our community at least they can now go to the health center and get method to help their lives
— Women leader in Ilogbo community
What your organization is doing is helping our girls oo, because some of them don't even know anything about their health
— Matron Atan PHC, Adodo Ota
Since 9ja girls, my stubborn daughter is now responsible
— -Mother of Client from Agbelekale PHC, Lagos.
I came away from that session thinking, ‘wow, this is beautiful’,” Seun recalled. “Girls are dying [without contraception]. When I learned about [A360], I knew I had to be a part of it.
– Seun
9ja Girls is all about girls. People say girls choose contraception because they are promiscuous. Or if you are married, it means you don’t want to have a child with your husband,” Beth explains. “But I know that contraception allows girls like me to reach their dreams.
– BETH
My life is mine to make. My heart may break but I won’t fake, my body is mine, no one can take. I’m a 9ja Girl, I’m awake
– HOORAY
This is a good place for girls. “9ja Girls has given Taiwo more confidence and kept her more focused. I want every girl to at least use a condom and to grow to be successful.
– Mrs. Falohun, Mother
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