Society for Family Health (SFH) Nigeria with funding from MTV Staying Alive Foundation is implementing the MTV Shuga Naija Peer Education Project. The project is a four months’ intensive peer education intervention implemented in three States namely Kano, Kaduna and Lagos. Trained peer educators (PEs) in each target state organize and conduct sessions with their peers within their communities. The sessions cover issues relevant to adolescents and young adults such as reproductive health, life planning, gender-based violence among others, as addressed by MTV Shuga Naija series. Through the sessions, PEs share relevant information on youth and adolescent reproductive health, address myths and misconceptions and refer individuals to facilities were needed services and more information can be accessed.
The National Human Rights Commission is a body set up to investigate, promote and protect human rights. As a key resource in terms of legal support for victims of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) which is part of the MTV Shuga program focus, a courtesy visit was carried out to the National Human Right Commission (NHC) Kaduna state to deliberate on effective partnership that will provide timely legal aid to beneficiaries of the MTV Shuga peer education project who might be victims of GBV through referral channels.
The Chief Legal Officer of the Kaduna State NHC, Mrs Ina Audu expressed her excitement towards the MTV Shuga intervention. She promised to assign investigative officers that would work with the project team in the four intervention LGAs of the state. The commission also requested that their staff attend some peer sessions to refresh their skills on facilitation.
