Teens Meet Outreach

On the 21st of March 2025, TMO Ibadan hosted its annual Pad-A-Teen outreach at the Living Word Mission Adolescent and Young People Centre in Ibadan where we reached out to 86 girls. Although we officially scheduled the event for 11:00am, our day started much earlier at 8:00 am with a trip to Agbeni Market to purchase sanitary pads.

After arriving at the Centre at 10:58am, we spent about twenty minutes setting up the venue and unpacking the pads. The session kicked off at 11:30am with icebreakers, followed by an introduction from Pastor Samuel Adeniji, the Centre’s coordinator. He spoke on the essence of International Women’s Day (IWD), then introduced the TMO team to the teens in attendance.

The volunteers introduced themselves to the audience, and then the young women around the room took turns introducing themselves. The TMO Ibadan team lead, Miracle Abraham, started the discussion by restating the importance of IWD and its 2025 theme, Accelerate Action. She began to analyse the physical uniqueness of female anatomy, and then Better Ajiboye took over to explain the onset of puberty and the early signs of sexual maturity.

A representative from the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) interjected to emphasise their commitment to preventing and treating HIV among the young women at the facility. He also commended the event and noted the importance of local initiatives like TMO, especially amid the current uncertainties around foreign aid for women’s health.

Miracle continued the discussion, breaking down puberty-related changes and demonstrating how to use and properly dispose of sanitary pads. She also explained how to identify premenstrual symptoms, maintain good hygiene during menstruation, and adapt to alternative menstrual products if needed. She briefly discussed sexual health, encouraging them to build healthy platonic relationships, maintain necessary boundaries, prioritise abstinence or safe practices, and report any form of harassment—especially for younger girls.

As we handed out the pads, Better rounded off by teaching attendees how to track their menstrual cycles and monitor their physical and emotional symptoms. We arranged for the other allocated pads to be taken to the girls at the live-in home and took pictures with those present.  Some of the girls called us aside to discuss more personal questions about their reproductive health, while the older teenagers expressed interest in joining TMO as volunteers in future outreaches.

Every outreach is special, and Pad A Teen 2025 was no different. Beyond connecting with the teenagers, we opened up their minds to question the world around them and the goings-on in their bodies. By involving the older women in the facility, we drew the girls closer to a more lasting source of answers to their questions. The quality of the private questions they asked convinced us that we had left a print on their hearts, and we look forward to having them pay it forward by volunteering soon.

Special thanks to our TMO Ibadan volunteers: Miracle Abraham, Better Ajiboye, Timi Bolawa, and Kiiti Ajibade.

TMO aims to reach teenagers across the world, reminding them that they can be and do better, and while we hold several projects, the PadATeen Project is one of the ways through which we do this.

NOTE:

For this edition, we visited three locations. Click on the button below for a full, detailed report of all locations, including a financial report.

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