I was only eight years old when I recognized the power of development communication. Every Saturday morning, a radio drama titled “Abule Oloke Merin” (“The Village of Four Floors”) would play from the stereo in our living room. This radio drama was produced by a nonprofit organization committed to improving family health outcomes.

Through this drama, I learned about the genetic causes of sickle cell anemia and gained clarity on the cultural myth of “abiku” (a term used to describe a child who die young). This was long before my Integrated Science and Biology classes addressed these topics in secondary school. The knowledge I gained from that program has remained with me, influencing my health choices and worldview to to date. This personal experience shaped my firm belief that children should be intentionally included in SBCC programming.

Many SBCC interventions focus on adults or teenagers and leave out children, however, children represent a critical demographic that is too often overlooked. Targeting children may require additional planning and tailored approaches, but the potential for long-term impact makes it a necessary investment.

Why Should Children Be Included in SBCC Interventions?

3. Behavioral Multipliers:
Parents and caregivers often recount moments when children correct them based on lessons learned at school, in faith-based settings, or from media. Children not only internalize messages quickly, they often become messengers themselves, influencing their families and peers.

4. Access through Existing Structures:
Children are highly reachable through formal and informal institutions such as schools, religious organizations, and after-school programs. Also by leveraging media and communication platforms they already engage with such as cartoons, jingles, and educational games, children can be reached effectively and consistently.

Designing SBCC Strategies That Center Children

SBCC aims to influence knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors using a diverse of communication approaches. When children are the target audience, it is crucial to embed messages in formats that are educational, entertaining, and age-appropriate. Below are some suggested strategies for designing impactful child-focused SBCC initiatives:

• School-Based Campaigns:    Organizing school outreach programs with games, role-plays, and music competitions can reinforce project messaging while fostering peer learning. Activities like sing-along challenges with SBCC-themed jingles can drive retention and enthusiasm.

• Illustrated Storybooks:          Children’s books, especially those with vibrant illustrations and relatable characters, are powerful tools for message transmission. Storybooks can be developed to align with specific project goals while supporting literacy and social learning outcomes.  One of my colleagues remembers reading a series of books that not only taught children about health, hygiene and taking care of your siblings, but also encouraged readers to teach other children what they had learned in the book. 

Conclusion
Children may not always be the primary target in SBCC campaigns, but their inclusion can significantly amplify outcomes and ensure sustainability. By designing interventions that speak their language and match their interests, and, very importantly, including them in the design stage of these interventions, we not only shape the behaviors of today’s youngest generation, we lay the foundation for healthier, more informed communities in the future.

Every 10 minutes around the world, a woman is killed.

It is critical that we all sit with that for a minute and consider the implications of that reality.

There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day, which means that EVERY day, cumulatively around the world, 144 – One hundred and forty-four – women are murdered.

Perhaps what is even sadder is that the majority of these women are murdered by their partners and family members. For these women, and for many others like them across the world, the place where a person should be most safe and feel protected from harm – their home – became a place where the end of their lives were heralded.

Femicide, an intentional killing of a woman or girl because of her gender. There are countries around the world where so little value is placed on having a daughter that girls are murdered by their parents and extended families. There are countries where, in cases where girls are allowed to grow up, it is with an understanding that they exist to serve the males around them, as daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers.

Exactly 7 days ago, in Nigeria, Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu published a report on HumAngle titled, “A Tragic Femicide Case in Northeastern Nigeria Smells Like Honour Killing,” where she took us through the journey of Falmata, a 17 year old girl in Bama, Borno State, who was murdered by her uncle, her father’s brother, for the apparently unforgivable sin of disrespect.

Buoyed by cultural and social norms, this man, her uncle, murdered Falmata while she was asleep in the room she shared with her mother, daring to tell a mother whose child he had just murdered that he had dug her daughter’s grave and she could bury her at 9am the next morning.

Every time I think about this report, I feel an ache begin to form at my left temple. What level of disregard of the inherent value in a woman’s life allows you to just murder someone and then go about your day like it was just a regular day of the week? What kind of value system does a community operate that makes this kind of crime even conceivable? And for the love of God, what kind of faux legal system do we operate in Nigeria that arrests a grieving mother on the day of her daughter’s funeral, while her daughter’s killer roams free?

Violence Against Women and Girls exists within a cycle of abuse that sometimes culminates in the murder of a woman or girl. But it rarely begins there.

The casualization of women’s agency is a step in the cycle. The prevailing rape culture and determined re-victimization of survivors of gender-based violence is a step in the cycle. The predominant hierarchical system in our society that places different values on individuals based on their gender is a step in the cycle. The silencing of women’s voices, and by extension, their agency, is a step in that cycle. The harsh, often disproportionate response, to dissent, especially when it comes from a woman, is a step in the horrendous cycle of gender-based violence.

These steps, often trivialized as standalones, are the perfect recipe for the creation of a society, of a world, where a woman is murdered every 10 minutes and it’s just another day because what else is new?

And so we must all take responsibility. In our homes, among family members, in our places of work, our places of worship, and the places where we hold any form of power.

You have a daughter and a son? Ensure both of them know that none is beholden to serve the other simply on the basis of gender.

You read about a case of abuse or rape? Take a minute before typing your opinion to ask yourself if it is one that centers the humanity of the survivor or it’s one that plays into tired tropes.

Your friend makes a ‘joke’ that trivializes a woman’s agency? Call it out, right there, on the spot.

We must deliberately and intentionally contribute to building the framework of a society where everyone is respected, their opinions judged on its merit, and one where gender-based violence simply has no place. 

By Tawakalit Kareem, for ARDA-DCI.

The smile on the faces of these new Adire business owners says it all!

As a women-led organisation, women empowerment is core to us at ARDA
We recently supported @shimmers_services in empowering 16 women in the Oworoshoki community, kosofe LGA, Lagos State. The women were trained on how to make cultural fabrics popularly known as “Adire”.

The training included financial literacy and business management to help them build a profitable business. At the end of the training, the women were presented with start-up materials to ease the set-up of their businesses. As an organisation, we will continue to make impacts and improve livelihoods in communities where we work.

Congratulations to all the participants, we wish them the best in their businesses.

In a remarkable step towards fostering resilience, stability, and lasting peace in Borno State, the ARDA-WE LEAP project, spearheaded by ARDA Development Communication in collaboration with Youth Integrated for Positive Development Initiative (YIPDI), is making significant strides in empowering women. This initiative is designed to enhance the capacity of women in Borno State, enabling them to influence decision-making processes, contribute to the resilience of their communities, and advocate for enduring peace.

Lilian Ngusuur Unaegbu, the Programme Manager and Officer-in-Charge of the Maiduguri Sub-Office at UN Women Nigeria, expressed deep gratitude to the women of Jere and Konduga Local Government Areas (LGAs) for their unwavering cooperation and enthusiasm towards the Women’s Empowerment for Leadership and Economic Advancement for Peace (WE LEAP) project. She also extended heartfelt appreciation to the men and partners whose steadfast support has been instrumental in achieving these impactful outcomes.

As ARDA celebrates these achievements, they continue to pray for the ongoing success and growth of the community women’s businesses. The hope is that their positive influence will extend far beyond their local communities, fostering a ripple effect that contributes to a more peaceful and resilient society.