“Child Sexual Abuse is preventable. By learning about it, learning how to recognize it, and how to deal with it, 86million Nigerian children will no longer be at risk of having of their childhood destroyed.” Bola Tinubu (Mrs)

The Cece Yara Foundation, a top 12 finalist of the Google Impact Challenge has taken up the fight against child sexual abuse at a time when 25% of girls and 10% of boys in Nigeria experience sexual violence. Since its launch 18 months ago, the Foundation has set up a free 24-hour child helpline and state-of-the-art Child Advocacy Centre for children who have been sexually abused.

The Cece Yara Team believes that protecting these children and creating safe spaces for them is the first step in protecting the next generation of Nigerians, to this end the Foundation has ensured the safety of children who may have otherwise faced sexual violence.

In this period, the Child Advocates attended to 7,000 calls, provided 850 counselling sessions, filed 30 criminal cases in court and trained over 6,000 children on protecting themselves. An Adult Community Awareness Program has recently been set up in accordance with the belief that the onus is also on the adults to ensure protection of children within their communities.

According to the organisation’s Founder, Bola Tinubu, who was recently named as one of the BBC 100 Women Inspiring and Influential Women of 2018 – the main challenges are creating awareness in all Nigerian communities, and making healing and justice freely accessible to every child, no matter which community they reside.

The Cece Yara Foundation has been selected as a finalist in the Google Impact Challenge. The Google funding will create an opportunity for the Foundation to increase the impact of itsprojects and ensure it has the ability to implement strategies to further its reach into various communities across Nigeria, using technology and best practice in response to child sexual abuse.

The Foundation has the opportunity to double its funding if it acquires the most public votes in the Google Challenge by 25th November 2018. You can make an impact by helping us save millions of Nigerian children from child abuse, follow the link to vote today https://bit.ly/2Qi2lFx

About The Foundation

The Cece Yara Foundation is a child-centred non-profit organisation to prevent child sexual abuse and provide access to care, information, protection and emergency intervention for children who are sexually abused or at risk, and their family.

The Foundation provides the ideal response to children through a 24-hour free child telephone helpline and its child-friendly Child Advocacy Centre based in Lagos, which provides provide professional counselling, medical, legal and psycho-social support, as well as referral services