Recovering from Boko Haram: Gombe, Nigeria

Suwaiba Yakubu Adam (18, brown hijab) teaches a group of 25 girls from her community who she identified and recruited herself. Using the same curriculum she learned from Mercy Corps, she guides lessons in everything from financial literacy to sexual health, believing sharing of this knowledge can be transformative for them. Suwaiba has been through a great deal in her 18 years: the death of both her parents, harassment by local gangs, attacks by Boko Haram. Yet she perseveres, stoic and determined, crediting her parents for instilling in her a desire to help people. After participating in Mercy Corps’ girls group in her community — part of the I-SING program, which provides life and vocational skills to vulnerable youth in Boko Haram-affected areas — Suwaiba felt so strongly that more girls should have the opportunity that she started leading her own group, independent of the Mercy Corps program.With the Boko Haram crisis behind her, she’s continuing to pursue to her own ambitions too: she wants to complete school and become a pharmacist, because it’s a way to serve her community.
Gombe, Nigeria, October 2018

Suwaiba Yakubu Adam (18, brown hijab) teaches a group of 25 girls from her community who she identified and recruited herself. Using the same curriculum she learned from Mercy Corps, she guides lessons in everything from financial literacy to sexual health, believing sharing of this knowledge can be transformative for them.  

Suwaiba has been through a great deal in her 18 years: the death of both her parents, harassment by local gangs, attacks by Boko Haram. Yet she perseveres, stoic and determined, crediting her parents for instilling in her a desire to help people. After participating in Mercy Corps’ girls group in her community — part of the I-SING program, which provides life and vocational skills to vulnerable youth in Boko Haram-affected areas — Suwaiba felt so strongly that more girls should have the opportunity that she started leading her own group, independent of the Mercy Corps program. 

With the Boko Haram crisis behind her, she’s continuing to pursue to her own ambitions too: she wants to complete school and become a pharmacist, because it’s a way to serve her community.