Mitigating the Impact of Baby Factory on Women and Girls

Law enforcement agencies in Nigeria have been in the news for raiding baby factories and nabbing masterminds. Victims are subjected to sexual exploitation resulting to torture and psychological trauma. Baby factory involves incarceration of girls and young women for procreation. Victims are confined, impregnated and kept until they deliver their babies. Upon delivery, their babies are taken from them and sold. While some of the girls approach these baby factories as, others have been abducted and forced into it. Some are lured into it with fake promises of job placement. With 42.5% youth unemployment in Nigeria, many young girls are at risk of falling victim. Operators of these baby factories recruit teenage boys and young men for the purposes of luring unsuspecting girls into the locations and forcefully impregnating them.

YSAD will design an app to help members of the community report cases of “baby factories” to the police where they exist in their various communities. There will be awareness messaging on radio, televisions and social media to raise public awareness of this social menace. Survivors of baby factories will be empowered with digital skills to help amplify their voice against the social menace of “baby harvesting”. The digital skills acquired will also be a source of livelihood for the women and girls. 

Our solution will serve girls and young women between the ages of 13 and 25 who are survivors of "baby factory" or potential victims of baby factory. presently, they are not receiving serious attention. The survivors are not well taken care of beyond rescuing them from the operators of "baby factories" and the potential victims are not receiving much awareness on the existence of "baby factories". 

Our organization has working relationship with community gate keepers in the the communities. We have also been working with the police and other law enforcement agencies. In October 2022, we organized a workshop where we invited girls and other young women, law enforcement and other government agencies, civil society actors to raise awareness on the menace of "baby factories" and enlightened girls to be safety conscious at all times. 

Becoming a solver will help us access funding from Solve and also connect our solution to other solver teams for more support. We are also applying to Solve to help us join a network of impact-minded leaders across sectors with opportunities to meet during Solve events. It will also help us join a class of impressive peers who will serve as a trusted support community. We are also applying to Solve to access strategic coaching and advice from experts who are members of Solve network and also get exposure in the  media and at conferences.

Acquiring digital skills will help amplify the voices of survivors and potential victims and at the same time providing opportunity to make a livelihood through the skills acquired. Leveraging radio, television and social media messaging will help create awareness and combat ignorance. The use of an app for complaints to the police will help in swift arrest of masterminds and release of victims 

Our solution goals over the
next 12 months:

1) Grow to impact at least 300,000 girls/young women in rural and semi-urban communities in Nigeria

2) Engagement: YSAD will facilitate 5 million conversations between girls/young women, law enforcement agencies, other government agencies and other relevant stakeholders

3) Product and technology: A fully built out app for complains mechanism 

4) Content: Establish content partnerships for parent/teacher education materials 

Our vision over the next five years is to grow and scale our solution to affect the lives of more people:

Our 5 year vision is to empower 10million girls and young women and members of the society to combat the social menace of “baby factory” in Nigeria. We plan to do this through 1) growing the number of our institutional partnerships including state/federal governments, school districts, educational non-profits as well as international organizations who reach the undeserved 2) providing vulnerable girls and young women with livelihood skills to save them from the deceit of helping them secure jobs by “baby factory” operators 3) Raising awareness of the existence and prevalence of baby factories. 

1. Number of complaints received on the app.

2. Number of victims rescued by the law enforcement agencies.

3. Number of survivors and vulnerable girls and women equipped with digital skills.

4.Number of trained beneficiaries who are actively campaigning against the social menace of baby factory and making a living from the skills acquired.

5. Number of people reached through awareness raising

Empowering survivors of "baby factory" and other vulnerable girls and young women; raising public awareness of the existence and prevalence of "baby factories" and adopting a multi stakeholder approach to addressing the social menace of "baby factory"

The solution will adopt the use of app, radio, television and social media to address the issue

YSAD has a policy document that takes care of diversity, equity and inclusion. Segregation of any form is not welcomed in our organization

We ensure that our rightsholders and stakeholders are at the center of all we do at YSAD. We carry them along at every stage of our project design from the ideation stage to the implementation stage. Accountability to those we work with is one thing we do not compromise

YSAD receives donations from members of the public and organizations. We also receive grants from donor agencies to keep the organization going

We have received grant from the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the Government of the Netherlands through Voice, a project under Oxfam in Nigeria. We have received donations from companies in Nigeria and individuals too and we have continued to reach out to donor agencies, individuals and organizations for sponsorship