Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
19
Project title
Her Room
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
HerRoom is a hybrid virtual and physical safe space and survivor-controlled referral pathway for girls and young women (13–22) in Nigeria, meeting the smallest need (someone to talk to) and the most urgent one (abuse disclosure) with the same care, on her terms.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.instagram.com/adediwura_omo_asa?igsh=OGJsYTkza3cxNGVh
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
HerRoom began as a gap I lived through myself. There was a point when I already knew what to do if something happened to me, but had nowhere safe to go. When I finally found a space to speak, what I got was sympathy: an apology, and a therapist who listened for a few months, then left, before I could say I was healed. The "aha" moment came later, doing safe-space dialogues and community medical outreach. With Make Her Smile Africa and Women for Greater Good Foundation, I kept meeting girls asking the same quiet question I once asked: is there anyone safe I can talk to, right now, without it costing me my privacy or my family's respect? I realised the gap wasn't willingness or trust, it was infrastructure. I already had the trust; I just needed a structure that follows up consistently, exists before the crisis, and lets each girl decide how visible her story becomes.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Across Nigeria, girls disclose distress every day to an NGO, a parent, or no one at all, mostly asking a small, urgent question: is there anyone safe I can talk to right now? When that space doesn't exist, many fill the gap the only way available to them: attention from older men or boys, who are often the very people most likely to exploit that need. This matters to me and my community directly: nearly 7 in 10 adolescents in South-West Nigeria (where I'm from) report experiencing sexual violence since age 12, yet fewer than 1 in 4 survivors nationally ever get formal help. In June 2026, Nigeria's Women Affairs Minister disclosed 2,755 GBV cases nationally in just four months, 82% involving sexual violence, mostly against girls aged 10–14, with only 4% ever reaching prosecution. A second, quieter driver sits inside this same gap: many girls' earliest exposure to sex is curiosity, not coercion, and without honest sexuality education, that curiosity becomes early pregnancy. I've lived close enough to this problem to know statistics alone won't close it. My sister became a mother at age 16.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
HerRoom is a hybrid safe space, virtual (social media and The Diwura Diaries) and physical (community-based hubs), for girls and young women aged 13–22, where the smallest need and the most urgent one are met with the same standard of care and follow-through. A survivor-controlled, tiered referral pathway lets each girl decide how visible her story becomes: fully anonymous emotional support, or a full legal, medical and case-management pathway. In practice: virtual HerRoom runs continuously through Instagram, TikTok, YouTube content on digital safety and grooming recognition, plus a secure digital intake form. Physically, It will run twice-monthly drop-in safe-space sessions per site, phased across Ibadan North-East and Ibadan North (Months 1–3), then the seven towns of Ibarapa (Months 4–6), staffed by trained near-peer mentors with a rotating counsellor and legal liaison. Every disclosure gets a scheduled follow-up, not just a first conversation, and the pathway includes confidential HIV testing, counselling and condom access for those already sexually active, alongside legal and medical referrals I'm formalising with NAPTIP, hospitals and partner organisations.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
HerRoom is entering its pilot stage, so impact will be tracked from day one through anonymised case logs and pre/post surveys, mirroring the operational tracking systems I already build professionally. Over the 6-month pilot, I expect to: reach at least 500 girls and young women directly across 17 physical hubs plus continuous digital channels; provide confidential listening and referral to at least 50 girls disclosing distress or abuse; complete at least 25 warm referrals to legal, medical or mental-health partners; and deliver sexuality education and HIV testing/counselling/condom access to at least 100 sexually active young women. I expect to see at least a 25-percentage-point increase in girls who can name a safe, trusted space or person to turn to, and at least 60% reporting less need to seek attention from older men or boys for emotional support, because the space that used to not exist will now consistently be there.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Most GBV response work starts after a girl has already been harmed and asks her to formalise her story into a case file. HerRoom starts earlier and lets her choose: it treats "someone to talk to" and "a disclosure of abuse" as equally valid entry points, both met with the same standard of care, and gives each girl control over how visible her story becomes rather than defaulting to formal reporting. It also addresses a driver most programs don't: not every early sexual encounter begins with coercion. Many girls' first exposure to sex is curiosity, and without honest, non-judgemental education that curiosity becomes unplanned pregnancy. HerRoom answers this directly with sexuality education and confidential SRH access, alongside (not instead of) abuse response. What makes this workable, not just well-intentioned, is that I'm not building trust or infrastructure from zero. I bring years of standing trust with girls through MHSA and WGGF, an existing media voice through The Diwura Diaries, and a professional operations discipline (I build and correct tracking systems for client work daily) that I'm applying directly to HerRoom's case-management and M&E system. And unlike research-driven programs, I've personally sat with the exact question a girl in crisis sits with, which shapes design decisions a purely statistical approach would miss.
How many people are on your team?
1
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
Currently it's me: founder, coordinator and lead. The pilot budget builds a small team around me: near-peer mentors (reflecting participants' age/context), a part-time counsellor and legal liaison on a rotating basis, an M&E officer, and a content/podcast officer for The Diwura Diaries. Mentors run their own sessions and one-on-one conversations directly; decisions about a girl's care stay with the mentor and the girl, not escalated upward by default.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Once funded, the first three months go into set-up: finalising safe-space sites across Ibadan North-East and Ibadan North, recruiting and training near-peer mentors, a counsellor and a legal liaison, and signing referral partnership agreements (legal, medical, mental health) so I am not building infrastructure from zero. In parallel, I launch virtual HerRoom channels, set up The Diwura Diaries podcast format, run a baseline survey, and hold community entry meetings with parents and local leaders before physical sessions begin. The following three months (Months 4–6) extend the same model to the seven towns of Ibarapa, adapted for a more rural context with dedicated transport support, while virtual HerRoom and the podcast continue nationwide and globally throughout. Beyond this funded pilot, I plan to document what works and use that evidence to bring in further partners and scale the same physical-hub-plus-virtual-channel-plus-referral-pathway model to additional LGAs and states.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
I already reach girls where they are: The Diwura Diaries, my ongoing video series on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, questions the systems that leave girls unprotected and is now expanding into a podcast for global reach. Through Make Her Smile Africa (MHSA) and Women for Greater Good Foundation (WGGF), I've delivered training and safe-space dialogues directly to young women and girls, and served as a training speaker on adolescent health and rights. Going forward, HerRoom activates others on two tracks. Virtually: moderated "ask me anything" lives, a confidential DM intake staffed by trained moderators, and content deliberately designed as a safer alternative to unvetted attention online, so followers become active participants, not passive viewers. Physically: I engage at least two community gatekeepers (parents, teachers, religious/community leaders) per site, briefing them on HerRoom and safeguarding, and I train near-peer mentors, young women who reflect participants' own age and context, so leadership and outreach are shared, not centralised in me alone.
