About Us
MUSIC FOR GIRLS INITIATIVE AFRICA is a non-governmental entity established in 2015. An organization that empowers, strengthens, supports, and gives hope and a voice to women and girls through the Creative and Performance Arts: Music, Dance, Drama, Media, Public Speaking and Poetry, Photography, Art and Craft. We work to increase their capacity and expand their tiers in the arts, not leaving out mental, social and financial intelligence that will prepare these young girls for the future and eliminate gender inferiority and dependency.
We use the arts as a medium to fight and speak up against illiteracy among girls, teenage pregnancy, FGM, child prostitution, child marriage, sexual and mental abuse, gender inequality, and gender-based violence. We work directly with the female gender, between the ages of 12 to 21 years. We are a registered organization in Sierra Leone and Nigeria functioning full-fledged in the area of Girl Child Empowerment.
Our Work
With the world’s gender comprising of only women and men, boys and girls, and with the female gender holding 50% of the world’s populace it will be erroneous to think that the global economy of the world will thrive, without the conscious and intentional input of women. This means that the female gender, can no longer be kept on the back burner, nor can they be side-lined where major decisions and policies are drafted for the cohesion of humanity.
Furthermore, we have based our work as a part of a greater whole, in line with the UNDP’s sustainable development goals, with our focus on goals 5, 4, and 10 respectively, which are; Gender Equality, Quality Education, and Reduced Inequalities, with our focus areas on Africa for obvious reasons.
The girl child is instrumental in the development of African nations and their economies; therefore, we cannot neglect her.
Music for Girls Initiative Africa has put in place strategic programs and activities in countries and communities we have worked in, that groom and place the female gender on an estimable plinth. We started first in Sierra Leone in August 2015, and June 2020 in Nigeria and since then we have touched the lives of more than 2,000 girls positively, in the areas of sharpening their talents and enhancing their livelihood skills, giving them a platform to showcase their gifts, increasing their confidence and improving their self-esteem, supporting them financially through entrepreneurship programs, getting them access to education, and also stepping in to address Gender-Based Violence and Harmful Practices
Our interventions have created a safe space that accommodates a minimum of 50 adolescent girls weekly. Through these educative and creative programs, young girls are mentored and nurtured with life skills, creative and performing arts skills, including tutorials on gender and sexuality development, creating awareness, and shedding light on issues affecting girls. Ensuring girls have in-depth knowledge on the issues they are faced with and are equipped with requisite knowledge on how to use their voice to become champions in the fight for gender equality to tackle and speak up against prevailing issues such as FGM, child marriage, sexual and mental abuse, gender-based violence, etc. using their arts.
We harness and prepare young minds to be drivers and contributors to the socio-economic and political development of the African continent. In October 2016, we partnered with Plan International Sierra Leone to hold a musical concert and a beauty pageant to commemorate the International Day of the Girl Child. This was geared towards steering up the potential in girls. We are glad that hundreds of girls benefited. We had a workshop (in December 2016) tagged, ‘A Day Out with Estar Mykel’. Our focus was on health with a particular interest in sexual and reproductive health with a focus on menstrual hygiene.
International Women Day is commemorated with a television program addressing the issue of women taking a lead in nation-building. On the 16th of June, of every year we commemorate the International Day of the African Child, with an Art Exhibition to showcase our girls’ creative talents. Girls are taught by professionals how to make bags, neck and hand beads, shoes, and household hand-made decorative pieces, these pieces of artwork, are then auctioned and proceeds are put back into the program to support more girls in the next year.
Music for Girls Initiative Africa also engages in relief projects from unforeseen disasters, one of which is the musical concert which was held at the Moteme community, Regent, Freetown, to console the survivors of the landslide that happened on the 14th of August 2017 that claimed hundreds of lives. This concert was staged after Music for Girls Initiative Africa donated relief items worth more than 20 million Leones to the disaster victims.We have held for four consecutive years national essay competitions and drama competitions giving out laptops in prizes to winning essays and drama pieces.
With an annual Music speaks conference and concert tagged “I AM A VOICE”. Our work has seen successfully over 10 girls through school, 5 girls into small-scale businesses, and 2 girls who have established their organisations to continue to shade light, speak up, and reach out to more girls in their communities, towards the furtherance of gender parity.
These and more are successful projects that Music for Girls Initiative Africa has passionately engaged in for over 5 years to empower and equip girls in Africa. Every year we keep creating, speaking, performing, and sharing our arts with the continent, as we strive to correct social ills and create awareness through our projects.