Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funded 3-year project, “Reaching and Empowering Adolescents to make Choices for their Health (REACH) Project,” has closed out in Zamfara State on Thursday.

Newsmen report that REACH was funded by Global Affairs, Canada, and implemented by a nongovernmental organization, Save the Children International (SCI), in Zamfara, Gombe, and Katsina states.

Kaura Namoda and Talata Mafara LGAs were selected for the pilot project in Zamfara.

Speaking at the event, Rahinatu Hussaini, the Project Director, said the project started in 2018, targeting adolescents in rural communities aged 10-19 years.

She said the targeted adolescents faced discriminatory social and gender norms, which significantly affected their abilities to make decisions to protect and improve their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Hussaini thanked the adolescents and their parents for using the opportunity to participate in the project and urged them to utilize the knowledge they had acquired in the three years of the project for the future benefit of society.

“The REACH project was successful in Zamfara. We enjoyed cooperation from all stakeholders, especially the state government, traditional rulers, and the two councils of Talata Mafara and Kaura Namoda, for their support to the project.

“We have achieved our targets, we can even say, we overachieved our targets in Zamfara considering the successes recorded by the project in various aspects of adolescents’ development.

“We need more collaboration from the state to sustain the project,” Hussaini said.

Giving an overview of the project in Zamfara, Murtala Bello, the Project Manager in the state, said it had recorded tremendous achievements as regards the future of adolescents in the state.

“Our key targets are adolescents to improve their sexual and reproductive health. We adopted the socio-ecological models’ method to implement the project and we have witnessed great successes, especially as it changed the lives of adolescents in the state.

“We have successfully reached out to thousands of adolescents, comprising males and females, in the two LGAs.

” And the project changed their lives to a better status, especially in education, sexual and reproductive health,” Bello said.

In his remark, the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Kabiru Balarabe, commended the GAC and SCI for funding and implementing the project in the state.

Balarabe, represented by the Permanent Secretary, State Ministry of Health, Dr. Habibu Yelwa, pledged the state government’s commitment to sustain the project.

He also acknowledged the cooperation given to the project by traditional and religious leaders, as well as parents from Talata Mafara and Kaura Namoda local councils.

In their separate remarks, the Emirs of Talata Mafara, Alhaji Bello Muhammad-Barmo, and Emir of Kaura Namoda, Alhaji Sanusi Ahmad-Asha, commended SCI and Zamfara state government for choosing their domains to implement the project.

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The two emirs pledged to guarantee the future development of adolescents in their respective areas as it had changed their lives for the better.

Newsmen report that at the event, the state children’s parliament and adolescent beneficiaries of the project from the two LGAs, in their presentations, called for more efforts to address issues affecting children in the state.