Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
18
Project title
Y-VOICE — Young Voices for Civic Inclusion and Empowerment
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Y-VOICE (Young Voices for Civic Inclusion and Empowerment) equips young LBQ women in rural Nigeria with practical civic and human-rights knowledge, then supports them to become community educators and youth leaders who share what they learn, spark dialogue, and create a ripple of informed civic participation in their communities.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://silentvoicesinitiative.org/
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
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?
Silent Voices Initiative grew from a simple but painful observation: many young LBQTI women in rural Nigeria were facing stigma, isolation, violence and economic hardship, yet their voices were rarely present in the wider feminist and human rights movement. We saw that the problem was not only that people lacked information or rights awareness; many had no safe spaces, trusted networks or accessible ways to participate. The turning point came from conversations with young women in rural communities who wanted to speak about their experiences but felt that conventional advocacy spaces were too distant from their realities. That was our “aha” moment: if the movement could not always reach them through conferences, formal trainings or traditional advocacy, we needed to meet people where they were and use approaches that felt familiar and safe. We began experimenting with storytelling, football, arts, dance, community conversations and wellness activities as entry points for human-rights education, connection and collective action. The response showed us that people who were often treated as hard-to-reach were not disengaged they simply needed approaches designed with them, rather than for them. That realization became the foundation of Silent Voices Initiative: building power with rural young LBQTI women through creativity, community ownership and the belief that nothing about u
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Young LBQTI women in rural Nigeria face a combination of stigma, violence, social isolation, poverty and limited access to health, psychosocial and human-rights support. Their location often makes these challenges worse. Many live far from organizations and services that understand their realities, while fear of being exposed or discriminated against can prevent them from seeking help. The problem is also a gap in how movements and interventions are designed. Rural sexual minority women are often treated as beneficiaries rather than as people with knowledge, leadership and solutions. Traditional advocacy spaces can be difficult to access, and approaches designed in urban centres do not always fit rural realities. This matters to us because we have seen how silence and exclusion can leave young women believing they must face these challenges alone. we have also seen the strength that emerges when people have a safe space to connect, tell their stories, learn about their rights and support one another. Silent Voices Initiative exists to help close this gap by creating community-owned spaces where rural LBQTI women can build resilience, access support, develop leadership and participate in movements on their own terms. We believe that being rural should never mean being invisible.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Silent Voices Initiative uses strategic creative mobilization to bridge the information and engagement gap between rural LBQTI women and the wider human-rights and feminist movement. Instead of relying only on conventional workshops or advocacy spaces, we take engagement into communities through approaches that are accessible, culturally relevant and community-owned. We use football, storytelling, dance and theatre, arts, wellness circles, recycling and community activities as entry points for human-rights education, peer connection, movement building and psychosocial support. These activities create safer spaces where young women can discuss their experiences, learn about their rights, build confidence and identify solutions together. Our approach has three connected layers. First, creative mobilization brings information, connection and opportunities for participation closer to rural communities. Second, community-led research and documentation ensures that the experiences of people who are often invisible in policy discussions become evidence. Through focus group discussions, surveys, storytelling and community documentation, we identify patterns in discrimination, access to services, safety, health and other challenges. Third, we turn these grassroots voices and evidence into policy advocacy. We analyze findings, develop advocacy and policy materials, and engage decision-makers, civil society organizations and other stakeholders so that rural LBQTI women's realities inform programmes, policies and services. The result is a pathway from engagement to evidence to influence communities are not simply recipients of interventions; they generate knowledge, shape solutions and become part of the advocacy process. This allows Silent Voices to connect people.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Since launching in 2022, Silent Voices Initiative has reached more than 50,000 young LBQTI women across 13 states in Nigeria, particularly in rural and underserved communities. We have supported 10 local support groups and mobilized more than 50 intersex people through inclusive activities. Our impact is not only the number of people reached. Through storytelling, sports, wellness activities, human-rights education and community conversations, young women who were often isolated have found spaces to connect, share experiences, learn about their rights and participate in collective action. We also use focus group discussions, surveys and online engagement to document community experiences and generate grassroots evidence for advocacy. One of our strongest lessons is that communities considered “hard to reach” are often simply underserved by approaches not designed for them. When engagement is creative, accessible and community-owned, people participate and begin to see themselves as contributors and leaders rather than passive beneficiaries. We are now building on this foundation by strengthening community-led research and documentation, developing grassroots leadership and translating community evidence into policy advocacy. Our goal is for rural LBQTI voices to move from the margins into the decisions, policies and services that affect their lives.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
What makes Silent Voices Initiative different is not simply that we use football, storytelling, arts or wellness activities. Our innovation is in how we combine these creative tools with community-led research and policy advocacy to reach rural LBQTI women who are often excluded from conventional programming. Many interventions rely on formal workshops, rights trainings or urban-based advocacy spaces. While these approaches are important, they can leave rural communities disconnected from information, services and movement-building opportunities. We use activities that already make sense within communities football, storytelling, dance, theatre, arts, wellness and community action as entry points for deeper conversations about rights, safety, wellbeing and collective action. We then turn participation into evidence. Community members are not only recipients of programmes; they help identify the issues that matter, share their experiences and contribute to research and documentation. This creates a pathway from creative engagement → grassroots evidence → policy advocacy. This approach also allows us to document issues that may remain invisible in formal research. Instead of bringing predetermined solutions into communities, we use community voices to identify problems and shape responses. Our innovation is therefore both methodological and contextual: we are adapting creative mobilization to rural Nigerian realities and connecting it directly to evidence generation and systems-level advocacy. We believe this can make advocacy more representative because the people most affected are not simply being spoken about they are helping generate the evidence and shape the messages used to advocate for change.
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?
Our core team has six members : a Project Lead who coordinates strategy and implementation; a Communications Lead who manages storytelling and community visibility; a Compliance Lead who oversees accountability and safeguarding; a Program Officer who coordinates activities and community engagement; and a Resource Mobilization Lead who supports partnerships and fundraising. We share leadership through regular team planning, collective decision-making and clear responsibilities, ensuring each memb
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.
Over the next year, Silent Voices Initiative will strengthen the structures that help rural LBQTI women move from participation to leadership and influence. First, we will strengthen our grassroots support groups and creative mobilization activities, using storytelling, sports, arts, wellness and community conversations to reach more young women and connect them to information, peer support and movement-building opportunities. Second, we will expand community-led research and documentation. We will train community mobilizers to safely collect stories, identify emerging issues and document barriers affecting rural LBQTI women. We will turn this evidence into accessible reports, advocacy materials and policy messages that communities and allies can use. Third, we will strengthen policy advocacy by building relationships with civil society organizations, researchers, health and social-service stakeholders and decision-makers. We want grassroots evidence to inform discussions on inclusive services, safety, wellbeing and the rights of rural sexual minority women. Finally, we will invest in team capacity, safeguarding, communications and resource mobilization so the initiative can grow sustainably while remaining community-led. Our goal is not simply to reach more people, but to strengthen the pathway from community engagement to evidence, leadership and policy influence.
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.
We encourage people to join Silent Voices by creating entry points that feel accessible, creative and relevant to their everyday lives. Rather than asking people to first enter formal advocacy spaces, we use football, storytelling, dance, arts, wellness activities, community conversations and online engagement to build interest, trust and participation. Since 2022, we have reached more than 50,000 young LBQTI women across 13 states and established 10 grassroots support groups. Community members participate as peer supporters, storytellers, mobilizers, researchers and advocates. More than 50 intersex people have also been engaged through our inclusive community activities. We also encourage participants to become messengers themselves. People who join our activities share information with peers, bring others into support spaces, contribute their experiences to community-led research and help identify issues that require advocacy. This creates a multiplier effect where participants are not simply reached—they help reach and activate others. Over the next year, we will strengthen this approach by training more community mobilizers and peer leaders, expanding our creative engagement activities and creating accessible advocacy and research materials that communities can use themselves. Our aim is to build a growing network of rural young women who can turn lived experience into c
