GEAN Programs & Projects

GEAN

A world where every girl between 11 and 25, regardless of her background, her silence, or her circumstances, knows her voice matters, claims her power, and steps into leadership; because when girls have access to health resources, education, and community support, they don’t just survive. They lead!

Girls’ Empowerment and Advocacy Nextwork (GEAN) is a registered not-for-profit organisation dedicated to breaking the culture of silence that holds young women back. We work with girls across Nigeria, providing mentorship, counselling, legal aid, and leadership training so they can find their voice, build lasting confidence, and become the next generation of nation builders. Everything we do is rooted in the belief that when a girl rises, her community rises with her.

The Problem

Across Nigeria, millions of girls and young women face overlapping barriers that prevent them from reaching their potential. Period poverty forces girls to miss school or drop out entirely. Financial hardship cuts short promising educational journeys. Displacement and crisis strip girls of safety, dignity, and community. The culture of silence around menstrual health, gender-based challenges, and girls’ rights means many girls grow up without the knowledge, resources, or voice to advocate for themselves.

These are not isolated issues — they are interconnected systems of disadvantage that compound over time. Without targeted intervention, they lock girls out of education, leadership, and opportunity.

Our Belief

When girls have access to health resources, education, and community support, they don’t just survive — they lead.

GEAN was born from grassroots community work started by our founder in May 2025 and formally registered as an NGO in November 2025. In under one year, eight outreaches across 6 states, five school scholarships, and a 10-state volunteer network demonstrate what is possible when community-rooted action is resourced and sustained.

Our Input

Funding from grants, crowdfunding, and individual donations
A network of dedicated volunteers active across 10 states
Partner organisations and collaborative initiatives
Sanitary products, school fee resources, and welfare materials
Trained advocates and empowerment facilitators
Community presence and sustained relationships

Pad-A-Girl Outreach

Focus: underserved communities

Periodic

Scholarships

Focus: girls at primary, secondary and tertiary levels

Ongoing

Financial Support

Focus: university students facing financial barriers

Ongoing

Empowerment Programs

Focus: girls and young women

Periodic

Special Project

Humanitarian Response

Focus: crisis contexts e.g. IDP camps, post-massacre support

Ongoing

Awareness Campaigns

Focus: social media, underserved communities

Ongoing

Leadership

Aims and objectives of this initiative

Special Project

Support

Aims and objectives of this initiative

Ongoing

Outreach

Aims and objectives of this initiative

Periodic

Project Spotlight: Makurdi IDP Camp Christmas Outreach

Benue, December 2025

Internally displaced persons -particularly girls – live with compounding deprivation. Beyond food insecurity and lack of shelter, they lack access to basic menstrual hygiene products, clothing, and the simple dignities that most children take for granted. For girls in IDP camps, the approach of the festive season brings no comfort; only a sharper awareness of what they don’t have.

Menstrual health needs go unmet entirely, leaving girls to manage their periods without pads in already compromised sanitation conditions. Boys in the camps are equally overlooked: their grooming and sense of self left to deteriorate alongside everything else displacement strips away.

The Intervention

GEAN arrived at the Makurdi IDP camp not just to distribute, but to show up fully. The team administered a multi-pronged outreach that included:

MENSTRUAL HEALTH

Distribution of sanitary pads to girls and women in the camp, ensuring they entered the Christmas season with access to basic menstrual hygiene products.

CLOTHING

Clothes were distributed to children and families, a practical gift that doubled as a visible affirmation of their dignity and worth.

HAIR BRAIDING

Girls in the camp received hair braiding services, a deliberate, intentional act of care designed to make each girl feel seen, celebrated, and beautiful ahead of the festive season.

BARBERING SERVICES

Boys received barbering services, ensuring the outreach was holistic and that no child was left out of the experience of being cared for.

FESTIVE GIFTING

Additional Christmas gifts were distributed so that children in the camp could experience something of the festive season that displacement had otherwise made inaccessible.

"When we got to the camp, I didn't expect the first thing to strike me to be the children's faces. Not the conditions — the faces. The way they looked at us when they realised we had come for them. Not to study them. Not to take pictures and leave. But to actually be with them. "Braiding a girl's hair before Christmas feels small from the outside. But inside that camp, it was everything. It was her being allowed to feel like a child again — beautiful, worthy, celebrated. That is what GEAN is about. Not just pads. Not just clothes. But the fullness of a girl's dignity. "I left Makurdi knowing we have to go back. We have to keep going."

Ene Oteikwu

Founder, GEAN

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Outreaches Completed

Communities Served

Months of Impact

Scholarships Awarded

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Women & DV Victims Rehoused

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Sanitary Packs Served

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Before vs After Case Study

Akure, December 2025

For many girls in underserved communities in Akure, menstruation is managed in silence and with whatever is available: cloth, tissue, or nothing at all. Period poverty is not discussed openly; it is endured quietly.

Girls miss school during their periods, fall behind academically, and internalise a deep sense of shame around a natural biological process. Without access to sanitary pads, their ability to show up fully – in school, in life – is compromised every single month. The problem compounds: missed school leads to missed learning, which leads to reduced opportunities, narrowed futures, and a cycle of disadvantage that begins with something as simple and preventable as a lack of pads.

The Intervention

GEAN conducted its first-ever community pad outreach in Akure, distributing sanitary pads directly to girls in the community ahead of the Christmas season. The distribution was paired with brief sensitisation; creating a moment not just of giving, but of education, normalisation, and affirmation.

Girls received products, but they also received information and a message: your health matters, your body is not something to be ashamed of, and you deserve support. For many of the beneficiaries, this was their first time receiving menstrual products through a structured outreach; and their first encounter with an organisation that centred their needs explicitly.

"This was our first [outreach]. And I think that's why it stayed with me the way it did. Every organisation has a moment where the work becomes real — where it stops being a plan and becomes a person in front of you. Akure was that moment for GEAN.
"I remember thinking: this is what we exist for. Not the documents, not the strategy - this! A girl holding a pack of pads, knowing that someone thought about her this month.
"That is the work."

Ene Oteikwu

Founder, GEAN

Key Outcome

Girls in Akure received their first GEAN-facilitated access to menstrual hygiene products; and with it, a message that their health, dignity, and future are worth fighting for.