​In Nigeria, less than half of all school-age girls are enrolled in, and graduate, from school. At Give Girls A Chance (GGAC), we believe that educating girls is the single most powerful investment to shape a better future for Nigeria. We started in 2016 with the goal of increasing young girls’ access to quality education in Nigeria. Our team of dedicated mentors and volunteers work directly with girls in four secondary school in the Abuja area, providing scholarships, mentorships, and guidance. We aim to do this by addressing issues related to lack of access, low levels of awareness of the importance of education, and poor infrastructure of educational institutions.
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In Nigeria, less than half of all school-age girls are enrolled in, and graduate, from school. At Give Girls A Chance (GGAC), we believe that educating girls is the single most powerful investment to shape a better future for Nigeria. We started in 2016 with the goal of increasing young girls’ access to quality education in Nigeria. Our team of dedicated mentors and volunteers work directly with girls in four secondary school in the Abuja area, providing scholarships, mentorships, and guidance.
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EDUCATE
We partner with schools, sponsors, and local organizations to equip the girls with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed
MENTOR
We link the girls in our programs to qualified and capable mentors to improve their physical, mental, and social well-being
EMPOWER
We offer programs and scholarships to improve comprehension and literacy levels and emphasize the benefits of getting a quality education
Our approach is to provide comprehensive support to girls between the ages of 10 and 19 years from low-income families as well as to systematically develop the schools in the communities in which we work.
Meet the Team
Leadership
Hauwa Balami
Co-founder
"You love reading and been in school forever" people say to me but the honest truth it's not forever. As a kid I dreamt of being a medical doctor, and I've been lucky to get there with the support of my family and everyone around me. My journey has been unstoppable and each day daring with unlimited opportunities. I want every girl child in Nigeria to get the same. It's not about reading but it's knowing that once your zeal meets opportunity you can achieve anything. The sky is the limit and at Give Girls A Chance we would create that opportunity to educate every girl child.
Advisory Board
Uloma Ogba
Co-founder
I loved being in school, and sometimes wish I could go back. I’ve been fortunate enough to have parents and a community that recognized and supported my right to have the best education possible. And that has gotten me to where I am today, working as a Managing Consultant for MarketShare Associates. Give Girls A Chance is our way of giving back to our country and fighting to ensure that as many Nigerian girls as possible have access to a better and brighter future by receiving a quality education.
Pamela Abonyo
Marketing Manager,
Opportunity Bank, Uganda
Pamela Abonyo received her Bachelor of Development Studies from Makerere University Kampala and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot Watt University. She is also member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK). Her experience spans over 15 years in various industries across East Africa having worked with brands such as Barclays, Zamani, SONARWA, RwandAir, the Imbuto foundation, Primus, and Mutizig, among others. She is one of the founding members and Chairs the Board of the Uganda Marketers Society.
Kabir Adamu
Managing Director,
Beacon Consulting Ltd.
Kabir Adamu is the Managing Director of Beacon Consulting Limited, a renowned firm providing enterprise risk and security management solutions in Nigeria and the Sahel region. Kabir is a dynamic and professional security and intelligence executive with a sound track record in the public and private including humanitarian and development sectors. He is experienced in security consultancy and project management at the multinational level and has supported clients with operations in hostile, challenging and complex environments.
Emalohi Iruobe, Esq.
Founder,
Tribe XX Lab
Emalohi L. Iruobe Esq. is an attorney, adjunct professor, and social entrepreneur. She is the founder of Tribe XX Lab, the first and only co-working, wellness, and incubator space exclusively for female entrepreneurs and female led startups and companies in Lagos. Before delving into full time entrepreneurship, she practiced law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey working in Commercial litigation, and worked as the Manager of Project Implementation in the Kwara State Public Private Partnership office in 2013. Emalohi has over a decade of experience in entrepreneurship, law, education, and business. She has a BSc. in Finance and Banking from Lincoln University, PA and a Juris Doctor from Villanova University.
Christina Lohr
Senior Product Manager,
Elsevier
Christina Lohr is a Senior Product Manager for Elsevier in Amsterdam, where she currently builds analytical software for research evaluation together with a team of engineers and designers. Prior to joining Elsevier, Christina worked as an Analyst for a non-profit organization focusing on the impact analysis of various healthcare financing and delivery projects in African countries. Throughout her life she has been part of various community-driven volunteer projects, mostly focused on food-waste reduction and environmental challenges. Now working in technology, she would like to volunteer her time to empower more girls to join this interesting field.
Diseye Ajeh
Technical Training Analyst, Occidental Petroleum
Diseye Ajeh considers herself fortunate to have come from a family where education is not only prized but encouraged and supported. This support pushed her to obtain her bachelor's and master's degrees which have helped shape her career as a Learning and Development Specialist. Diseye is extremely passionate about supporting educational initiatives for girls and women because of the economic advantages it can create for them and their families in the future. She genuinely believes that there is no limit to what women and girls can achieve as a collective.
Okechukwu Ogba
Business Development Lead, Arizona Federal Credit Union
Okechukwu Ogba worked for over 9 years in the retail space where he gained a veritable talent for creating and managing multi-level relationships as well as designing goal strategies. These skills have served him well in his current role at Arizona Federal Credit Union where he is involved in managing relationships between varied community partners. He is also very involved in his local community. Okechukwu is very vested in the goals of GGAC and the social gap that it fills. He is eager to leverage his legal and research background, management experience, and passion for advocacy to contribute meaningfully to the GGAC mission.