Ada Onyejike
The award winning youth leader Onyejike Adaobi Blessing is a graduate of Fine and Applied Arts from the Institute of Management Technology, Enugu .She is passionate about girl child development. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Child Art Foundation and also the CEO of Peculiar Instincts.
She strived through her personal goals to develop a career as an artist. She graduated as the only female and the class representative in an all male class.
Ada Onyejika (Director GCAFY)
Her belief in grooming a group of independent women for Nigeria's tomorrow motivated her into establishing the Girl Child Art Foundation ( GCAF) in 2000.
The vision is to create a culture of professionalism, excellence, independence and social empowerment to over 40 million youths especially the girl child using Arts as a basic communication strategy. GCAF utilizes all forms of art as a tool for promoting social rights and equipping the girl child (young girls between the ages 8-25) with skills to be independent.
She also founded “Peculiar Instincts”, which is an advertising agency located in Enugu.
The mission of her initiative is to promote the rights of the girl-child and youth, promote gender equality, and to address issues related to poverty, HIV/AIDS, and environmental sustainability.
The GCAF is the first youth development Art Foundation in Nigeria. She also founded a sub-project of GCAF called GCAF Campus Initiative (GCI) where youth in Nigerian higher institutions help Nigeria achieve the millennium development goals through all forms of arts. It also focuses on reducing other social vices caused by peer influences. So far she has been able to reach 85 campuses, University of Port-Harcourt, University of Nigeria Enugu campus, Ebonyi State University, Delta State University, Abraka etc. in Nigeria, and is targeting 260 campuses by 2008.
Ada is currently partnering with US Embassy in Nigeria, Art for global development U.S.A, Alliance Franciase Enugu, and Concerned Nigerian Girl Etc. She has 5 full time staff and 85 volunteers including art teachers, musicians, counselors and health personnel whom she works with. She also has trained professionals who take care of their section on community projects.
Ada is an artist who has also acquired other certificates through training and courses both within and outside Nigeria on different issues related to youth development and women. She is an Alumnus and certified trainer of Akina Mama Wa Africa (AMWA) an African women leadership institute based in London, as well as the Nigerian coordinator of Peace Tile projects. She has coordinated/initiated several youth led HIV/AIDS projects among youth especially in the South Eastern States of Nigeria and other gender sensitive organizations within and outside Nigeria.
Ada Onyejike has coordinated and contributed actively in youth-related MDGs even as an undergraduate till date. She has endeared herself to many people through her positive independent professional competence. Overtime, she has served as a workshop, seminars/conferences as a Resource
Person, transferring basic skills, capacity building programs, health and hygiene of the girl-child as future women, HIV/AIDS, girl/women's rights, knowledge of self development through arts to young girls, gender organizations, and the less privileged members of the society.
She is determined to succeed in this respect using the media, exhibitions, art competitions, the dance, drama, art festivals and other forms of entertainment as campaign strategies for their social rights and to heighten their level of Independence. Some of her projects include Voice of a Nigerian Girl (VONG), which was recognized as world best practice document by youth all over the world during the 16th AIDS 2006 conference in Canada. The project uses art works as a mode of transferring information to other youth and several schools in different states in Nigeria.
She has another project called the Dance Fest, which is focused on inculcating positive values on our practices on HIV/AIDS ranging from its prevention and care of PLWHA, through dance in 198 schools (2,349 students in active participation) in Nigeria, HIV/AIDS awareness cartoon competition for girls of 8-24 years, Cartoon for Life, just concluded PEPFAR media fund under the U.S mission in Nigeria, an awareness prevention project for the youth especially the undergraduates in Anambra State of Nigeria. Through GCAF regular practical training, poetry, crafts-bead making, ceramics etc GCAF can boast of hundreds Collections/compilations of works of arts done by young people of all ages in the GCAF gallery and library.
She compiled and published the 1st HIV/AIDS poem anthology by Nigerian youth within and outside Nigeria in 2005. She concluded an art workshop on “Peace Tiles on HIV/AIDS” By Devarts U.S and currently exhibited paintings done by youth during ICASA conference in December 2005 on HIV/AIDS in Abuja, Nigeria along side with other youth of the world. She just concluded 9 National art workshop, exhibition and creative writing competition through the BBC documentary organized by Kambani Arts of London on the theme 'Expressions' through 3 Nigeria major festivals for youth. She also currently hosted the World traveling arts in Nigeria for 2006 from Art for Development, U.S.A (Art works from youth all over the world).
Her past projects has been selected as Oxfam International Youth Partnerships and GYCA world best youth based HIV/AIDS awareness practices in 2006.