The CCRHS’ Youth and Adolescent Sexuality Education Programme which spanned three years from 2002 to 2004 attempted to

implement the National Curriculum on Sexuality Education in Niger State. As part of the strategic designs
to enhance community acceptance and greater participation it was code named Comprehensive Life Education Project (CLEP).

General Objective
The general objective of this project was the Expansion of Access to Sexuality Education in the School System in Niger State. This was essentially on pilot basis to test run the possibilities of running of such programme in school system in the state given the widespread misgivings about the concept of sexuality in our tradition and culture.

Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of the project include:
(i) To increase government awareness and the implementation of the policy statement by National Council on Education (NCE) on Sexuality Education through the educational system in Niger State.
(ii) To strengthen the knowledge and understanding of officials (Principal, Counselor and Teachers) in Niger State about HIV and AIDS.
(iii) To increase and improve Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Sexuality Education and behaviour of youths in secondary schools in Niger State through training of peer educators over three years.
(iv) To increase collaboration, cooperation and networking among Action Health Incorporated (AHI),Lagos; Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health Services (CCRHS), Bida; Adolescent Health Information Project, (AHIP), Kano and Youth and Adolescent Reflection and Action Centre (YARAC), Jos.
(v) To increase organizational capacity to understand, analyze negotiate and advocate for an increase in government attention to Sexuality Education in Niger State.
The efforts, strategies and activities of the Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health Services (CCRHS) at achieving these objectives in the three years of its implementation are reported below;

Members of Sister NGOs at the training Session

The importance of advocacy strategy in the implementation of project of this magnitude and dimension can not be overemphasized. The advocacy component of this project took our team to important stakeholders both in government circles, target schools and community and religious leaders and traditional rulers. Among such important personalities and stakeholders visited include the Executive Governor of Niger State Engr. Abdulkadri Abdullahi Kure, his Deputy, Dr. Shem Nuhu Zagbayi, the two Honorable Commissioners of Education that have so far steered the affairs of the Ministry, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Daja and Honorable Idris Gwarijiko, Directors in the Ministry, media houses, traditional rulers and community and religious leaders. As situation demands, these advocacy visits are either on One – on – One which dictates that the Executive Director goes on such visits. Alternatively, group advocacy visits were also undertaken. One of such was the successful visit to the state’s number one citizen – Engr Abdulkadir Abdullai Kure on Wednesday, 20th of November, 2002. A powerful delegation of CCRHS team comprising of the chairman of the Board of Trustees Alhaji (Dr) Shehu Ahmadu Musa,CFR and members of the Board as well as two members of staff of CCRHS made the courtesy visit. The outcome of this singular visit set the tone for modest achievement recorded in the three - year period.
Advocacy and sensitization workshops and seminars.
CCRHS’ advocacy efforts did not end with only the advocacy visits, sensitization seminars and workshops were also held for all stakeholders to strengthen the advocacy component. One of such outstanding workshops was the one that brought the principal stakeholders both at the executive and legislative arms of government together. The advocacy seminar was held for a day on the 17th December, 2002 at the Niger State House of Assembly and drew seventy one participants ranging from the Honourable members of the House of Assembly, Commissioners and Permanent Secretaries from various ministries in the State. Others were from NGO, media organizations and Directors of various government parastatals.

Trainings
The training component of this project seeks to strengthen the knowledge and understanding of school officials (principals, counselors and teachers) in Niger state about HIV/AIDS through training of peer educators and teachers who are to teach sexuality education in their various schools. Trainings were held on yearly basis for three years that the project lasted.
In 2002, the training which was conducted on zonal basis spanned 12 days from November 18th – 29th and in the process, 131 students (peer educators) and 23 teachers were successfully trained.
In 2003, because there were backlog of students and teachers that were supposed to have been trained, efforts were intensified, hence, 202 (72%) and 49(87.5%) of the targeted peer educators and teachers respectively were trained across the three educational zones in Niger state. These figures represent 72% and 88% respectively of the original targets for the year, 2003. In 2004, the training programme doubled the efforts of the first two years in an attempt to bridge the gap created by shortfalls in 2002 and 2003 project years. In this regard, 47 schools selected across the three educational zones in the state with a total of 470 students and 94 teachers were earmarked and envisaged to benefit from this training programme. However, 40 schools (85%) out of the invited 47 schools, and 405 students (86%) and 74 teachers (79%) of the 470 students and 94 teachers respectively were successfully trained in 2004. If compared with what obtained in the first two years, (2002 and 2003), the training in 2004 witnessed the training of more peer educators and teachers as it was twice the size achieved in 2003 and was in four folds more than what obtained in 2002.

Monitoring and Evaluation
The monitoring and evaluation exercise was carried out on monthly basis for the period the schools were on session throughout the period the project lasted. At least a total of 8 monitoring and evaluation visits were paid yearly to all schools that benefited in the training programme. The monitoring and evaluation exercise was aimed at getting feedback on the performance of the Comprehensive Life Education from these schools and also to provide support where necessary for the programme to blossom to desired level. It must be emphasized that the result of the monitoring and evaluation exercise are quite impressive given the enthusiasm and interest expressed by both staff and students of the benefiting schools. However, this is not to say that certain reservations were not expressed by some people even in the school system. All of these have been taken up as challenges for future project activities.

Outreach to Schools
To consolidate these achievements, outreach programs were mounted in the last two years of project activities. The outreach programs were organized in two phases each year. The first phase was targeted at old schools that have benefited from the training in the preceding years, while the second phase was organized to coincide with the week of the celebration of the World’s AIDS Day. Both new and old schools were targeted in the second phase. A total of 26 outreach programs were organized in the first phase across the three educational zones to cover all schools that have benefited from the training. During this period, lectures were delivered in each school and explanations were offered on the entire sub – themes of sexuality education (Human Development, Personal Skills, Sexual Health, Sexual Behavior, Relationship and Society and Culture) as requested by schools.
The second phase of the outreach program took place throughout the first week of December to commemorate the World AIDS Day. Our team toured both old and new schools in Agaei, Lapai, Suleja, Minna, Kontagora, Mokwa, New Bussa and Bida with one school serving as host for schools found in these major towns. In this phase, film show, lectures and question and answer sections were some of the activities carried out.

Production and distribution of Resource Materials
To complement and enhance the activities of our peer educators on one hand and the teaching of Comprehensive Life Education (CLE) by teachers who benefited from the training on the other hand, resource materials like Training Manual and Peer Educators Guide were produced and distributed to schools in the course of project implementation. Also, handbills, different posters and stickers as well as t – shirt and face caps were massively produced and distributed. In all, 7,000 copies of both the training manual and peer educators guide, 30,000 copies of handbills, stickers and posters and 5,000 pairs of t- shirts and face caps were produced and distributed. The decision to massively produce these IEC materials was due to persistent and ever increasing demand by schools for the materials during monitoring and evaluation visits.

Empirical evidences of project Impact
To evaluate the impact of our project activities at increasing knowledge and improving attitudinal disposition as well as practice of Sexuality Education, a post – intervention survey of 1500 students and 800 students from focused and non – focused schools respectively in the pilot implementation of Sexuality Education curriculum in Niger State was carried out. Findings from empirical data generated from the survey reveal that there is a wide disparity in the knowledge of Sexuality Education between students from focused and non – focused schools. About 90% and 87.5% from focused schools could define what AIDS stands for and mentioned reasons why teenagers must abstain from sex respectively. Also, 74.5% of students from focused schools appropriately defined what goals are, how to set goals, defined correctly assertiveness and mentioned four places sexual harassment could occur.
Comparatively, however, a lower proportion (15% and 18.9%) of the students from non – focused schools correctly defined AIDS and stated reasons why teenagers should abstain from sex. Similarly, only 20% of students from non – focused schools managed to define goal, assertiveness and places where sexual harassment can take places. In the overall analysis, 90% of students from focused schools obtained higher knowledge scores above 75% on issues and topics embedded in the content of the Sexuality Education curriculum compared to only 21.2% of students from non – focused schools who obtained 45%. Also, 100% of students from focused schools have higher attitudinal disposition to issues raised in the curriculum compared to 25% from non – focused schools. In another dimension, similar findings were observed for practice of values taught in the curriculum as practice is higher in focused schools (95.8%) compared to non – focused schools (33.0%).
The relatively high attitudinal disposition and practice from focused schools testifies to the relevance of Sexuality Education among youths in our society. Despite the fact that students from non – focused schools have not been reached with Sexuality Education (which accounts for their obvious low knowledge of key issues) their attitudinal disposition to the concept and their practice of ideals of Sexuality Education shows some reasonable promise if eventually implemented in all the schools. However, further statistical analysis of issues involved in the post – intervention survey reveals that there is a significant difference between focused and non – focused schools in knowledge of Sexuality related issues (t= 47.6; < 0.001), attitudes towards Sexuality (t= 21.2 < 0.01) and practice (t = 14.6; 0.01) of Sexuality Education. This justifies the relevance of expansion of the project coverage in Niger State which reaffirms that the pilot efforts are not in vain. Hence, the new project will take advantage of this development and lessons learnt
Collaboration, Cooperation and Networking with other NGO

CCRHS collaborates with a number of NGOs based in Kano, Lagos, Ibadan and Jos especially cluster collaboration with Youth and Adolescent Reflection and Action Centre (YARAC), Jos. This is significantly because of proximity of Niger and Plateau States and more importantly, the two are located in the North – Central zone with almost similar socio – cultural set up though with certain variations in a number of ways. Other NGOs CCRHS worked with in this process include Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), Ibadan, Action Health Incorporated (AHI), Lagos and Adolescent Health Information Project (AHIP) based in Kano. CCRHS borrowed from the wealth of experience of these NGOs as well as shared lessons and challenges in project implementation especially peculiarities in our area of project activities with sister NGOs. One of such collaborations was the training workshop organised by Action Health Incorporated on Training of Trainers (22nd November – 4th December, 2004)
In recognition of efforts of the Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health Service (CCRHS) in the last three years in the expansion of access of young people to Family Life and HIV Education in Niger state and the proposed training of teachers for the implementation of the revised national curriculum for Family Life and HIV Education in the state that invitation was extended to CCRHS to be part of the training of trainers workshop in Lagos between November 22nd – December 4th 2004. In addition, CCRHS Director, Dr Yahaya Kuta was requested by the sponsors to nominate two key staff of the Ministry of Education who has been part of the implantation committee. Consequently, the duo of Mrs Eunice Mamman and Jumai Kolo were recommended for their brilliance and commitment to the programme so far. At this juncture, CCRHS also pay glowing tribute to Late Mrs Tabitha Begbe who was part of the take of team.
The training was organized by Action Health Information (AHI), Lagos in collaboration with Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United State of America (SIECUS) with funding support of the John D. and Catherine T, MacArthur Foundation. Professor Konstance McCaffree of the Widener University, USA, served as the facilitator. Dividends of Advocacy
In an attempt to consolidate project achievements get government involved actively and with such enduring commitment to the implementation of the project that focuses on improving young people’s knowledge, attitudes and practices of Sexuality Education through teachers’ training and effective teaching in Secondary Schools in Niger State of Nigeria, the Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health Services (CCRHS) went into immediate action of public education, and sensitization to sustain interest of all stakeholders (government, community and religious leaders) so as to strengthen community support for the program. This effectively began with CCRHS visits to the Etsu - Nupe (Chairman, Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers) in Bida. He was delighted and expressed his unflinching support always. The next was one – on one advocacy visits to all that matters in the supervising ministry (Niger State Ministry of Education). The visits took the Executive Director to the Honorable Commissioner of Education – Honorable Idris Usman Gwarijiko, the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Hassan Somanji as well as Directors and Executive Secretaries of Departments Board and Parastatals in the State Ministry of Education. Some of the Directors and Executive Secretaries met during these visits include Planning, Research and Statistics, Inspectorate, School and Educational Services, Curriculium Development, Science and Technical Board, Personnel and Education Resource Centre (ERC). All expressed enthusiasm and interest while the Honorable Commissioner directed that CCRHS should come up with the proposal on how the collaboration should be and how the Ministry can be of assistance. CCRHS then opted for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Our organization went into consultations with key officers of the Ministry on the areas to forge a common front and immediately came up with a draft of Memorandum of Understanding for the consideration of the officials of the Ministry. On the 29th of December 2004, meeting for deliberation on the content of the Memorandum of Understanding was held at the Conference Room of the Ministry. At this meeting, the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Hassan Somanji and 8 Directors in the Ministry attended the meeting while the Executive Director, Dr Mohammed Kuta Yahaya and the Senior Program Officer, Dr. Razak Olajide represented CCRHS. At the close of the meeting, clarification were sought on few items bothering on clarity of positions the Memorandum of Understanding identified such as responsibilities of the Ministry and CCRHS in training, teachers transfer and provision of effective teaching and learning skills.
The enthusiasm, interest, commitment and cooperation demonstrated at this meeting were unprecedented and this culminated in choosing 31st December 2004 as the date for the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding. Therefore, consultations were held with the Honorable Commissioner and assurance secured and immediately CCRHS effected all necessary corrections on Memorandum of Understanding in 24 hours.
This consensus can also be said to be divine as both parties in our wildest imagination could not have anticipated smooth passage of the content of the Memorandum of Understanding in swift manner it did. This development corroborates the assertion in the report of the third and final year of our immediate past project that both the people and government are gradually warming up to the realities and imperatives of Sexuality Education and it is time to act fast. With express permission of the Honorable Commissioner after due consultations with principal officers and CCRHS 31st December 2004 was agreed by all as the date of signing the Memorandum of Understanding. This no doubt shows the readiness of the government of Niger State to implement the national Curriculum on Sexuality Education on a full time scale without further delay.