Clear Her Path Programme
Strengthening Protection Systems by Removing the Barriers That Endanger Girls
Clear Her Path is Lift Africa Foundation’s integrated prevention and protection programme designed to address the economic and structural factors that expose girls to school dropout, exploitation, and sexual and gender-based violence.
The programme recognises that girls are most vulnerable where household poverty, food insecurity, and weak protection systems intersect. Clear Her Path intervenes at this intersection by strengthening women’s economic security while reinforcing community-level child protection mechanisms.
Why Clear Her Path Matters
Across Northern Nigeria, economic pressure continues to force families into unsafe coping strategies. Girls are often withdrawn from school to support household survival through street trading, domestic labour, or early marriage—placing them at heightened risk of exploitation and abuse.
Clear Her Path responds to this reality by treating women’s livelihoods as a protection strategy, not a standalone economic intervention. By stabilising households and reducing economic stress, the programme creates conditions that allow girls to remain in school and grow up in safer environments.
What the Programme Does
01.
Keeping Girls in School
Clear Her Path prioritises the prevention of school dropout by supporting mothers and caregivers of girls enrolled in Lift Africa Foundation’s From Streets to Classrooms initiative. By reducing household reliance on child labour, the programme helps ensure that education remains a viable and sustained pathway for girls.
02.
Strengthening Women’s Economic Security
The programme equips women with practical,context-appropriate livelihood skills and access to shared productive tools. These economic activities are structured to improve income stability, reduce vulnerability, and strengthen women’s capacity to support their families without exposing children to harm.
03.
Reducing Exposure to Exploitation and Violence
By addressing poverty-driven risk factors, Clear Her Path reduces girls’ exposure to street-based exploitation, unsafe labour, and transactional abuse. The programme integrates economic support with community sensitisation and referral pathways for survivors, reinforcing access to protection and justice services.
04.
Addressing Food Insecurity as a Protection Risk
Food insecurity remains a key driver of exploitation and school absenteeism. Clear Her Path integrates food-linked livelihoods and household-level resilience strategies to stabilise nutrition and reduce survival-driven risks affecting women and children.
05.
Strengthening Community Protection Networks
The programme works through women’s groups and community structures to build local ownership of child protection. A peer-to-peer model enables knowledge transfer, strengthens social cohesion, and supports early identification of risks at the community level
06.
Linking Economic Empowerment to Justice Reform
Clear Her Path is deliberately connected to Lift Africa Foundation’s broader justice and policy advocacy. The programme supports systemic reform by reinforcing legal protections, safe school initiatives, and the enforcement of laws addressing violence against women and children
Our Approach
The programme is designed to deliver prevention outcomes, not short-term relief.
Clear Her Path operates through:
- community-based women’s groups
- shared asset and skills-building models
- protection-focused economic activities
- coordination with education, justice, and social protection systems
