“Who Will Speak for Her?” – Listening to the Heartbeat of a Community

There’s a question we often ask when we enter new communities: “If a woman in this place is hurt, who will speak for her?”

At Community Primary School in Ugalaba, Ezza North, we didn’t have to wait long for answers

The staff and parents didn’t just listen. They leaned in. They questioned. They reflected. They cared.

We also sat down for one-on-one interviews, where some shared personal thoughts and experiences. These were not always easy conversations—but they were deeply human and incredibly necessary. What emerged was a clear truth: communities want to do better. They just need the space, the support, and the tools to begin.

And that’s what we’re here for.

Because gender-based violence isn’t a problem to be solved in isolation. It requires all of us—parents, teachers, traditional leaders, young people—to unlearn harmful norms, listen actively, and take a stand.

Let’s leave behind the idea that change only comes from the top.

In Ugalaba, it was parents with folded arms and furrowed brows, teachers leaning in with real concern, and voices once hesitant now growing bold—that’s where the work began.

Change doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it begins as a quiet question at a PTA meeting. A story shared in confidence. A decision not to look away.

That’s the kind of change we saw in Ugalaba—and it’s the kind we believe in. Not performative. Not temporary. But rooted, rising from the inside out.

Because when a community starts to care out loud, everything shifts.