GBP Nigeria Hikes to "stop the cut”

March 27, 2023

GPB Nigeria collaborates with Wave Foundation in 16 Days of Activism

by Prudence Omale, co-leader of GPB Nigeria


Have you ever played while elevated 2,500 feet from the ground?


Well, that’s exactly what the Global Play Brigade Nigeria was up to last December.


In a bid to honor the Global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence – with the theme “UNiTE! Activism to end violence against women and girls” – GPB Nigeria collaborated to organize a hike to Mbape Mountain in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja on the 17th of December, 2022.


Utilizing play for bridge-building and positive social change is at the very heart of the brigadiers in Nigeria who partnered with Wave Foundation to commemorate the 16 days of activism under the sub-theme "stop the cut." The purpose of the hike was to raise awareness about female genital mutilation (FGM). Even though FGM is common practice in many Nigerian cultures, we believe it is exploitative of women and needs to end. Not only does it constitute a human rights abuse, it can also lead to irreversible effects on the female genitalia with some victims paying the ultimate price of death. 


The audience was divided into ten groups by Global Play Brigade Nigeria, and each group was given a word to play with. They were given a word to express how they felt about the hike or one that had something to do with ending female genital mutilation. We had two of our Brigadiers perform spoken word pieces and by the end of the event, all attendees pledged their commitment to support the cause of putting a stop to FGM in Nigeria. #endFGM

Playing with Social Construction: GPB at the Taos Institute Symposium

By Danielle Speciale • June 9, 2026
Author: Sarah Filman, GPB Director of Programs

GPB and Linking Circles Academy Collaborate on Project TECI

June 9, 2026
GPB and Linking Circles Academy Collaborate on Project TECI We love a good partnership. And we really love a partnership that puts play where it belongs, in a classroom. So when Linking Circles Academy came with a vision to transform how teachers in Nigeria show up for their diverse learners, we opened the door. Fewer than half of teachers in Nigeria do not receive any training on inclusive education, and there are a lot of learners with diverse learning needs and abilities. Founded by Elizabeth Adams, a brigadier, Linking Circles is an education-focused organization on a mission to improve learning outcomes in African schools through teacher development. They've already trained over 50 teachers through virtual and in-person workshops. Project TECI (The Equitable Classroom Initiative) is their boldest move yet, aimed at training and mentoring at least 1,000 primary and secondary school teachers to design and sustain inclusive, equitable, student-centred classrooms. It's ambitious. It's necessary. And it has GPB's name all over it. Inclusive classrooms need teachers who know how to meet a room full of different minds, different stories, and make every single one of them feel like they belong. And play is one of the most powerful tools for developing exactly that. That's why GPB is stepping in as a curriculum partner for Project TECI. Through our Educators Ensemble, we're bringing our play-based and experiential learning methodologies directly into the teacher training design. GPB will be providing play-based learning resources and frameworks to shape the TECI curriculum, offering advisory and technical input, and delivering a virtual training session for TECI facilitators on how to integrate play and performance-based approaches into their work. We'll also introduce GPB's work to the educators coming through the TECI programme — because once a teacher catches the play bug, there's no telling where it spreads. We're happy to be walking this road with Linking Circles Academy. We're bringing play into spaces where it has been absent for too long. And we can't wait to see the classrooms and the children that TECI helps transform. Let's play it forward!