In Nigeria, due to the cultural and societal norms, adolescent girls and young women often experience violence due to their gender and sexual vulnerability. These norms impede their access to resources and vast opportunities. More of these genderrelated issues also affect young women and girls who use drugs. They are socially excluded, invisible, and hardly reached with sexual and reproductive health and rights information and services. Young women who use drugs are faced with the double stigma of being young and a person who uses drugs. This is further worsened by the criminalization of drug use, discrimination, and the societal expectation of young girls not to be sexually active. The stigmatization and discriminatory practices are not limited to the law enforcement agents but also common within healthcare settings.
The purpose of this publication is to amplify the voices that should be heard but have been suppressed due to criminalization and power imbalance between men and women in the society. We hope policy makers, program planners and every stakeholder will pay attention to the salient issues in every story and work together in a concerted way to bring about a change for every adolescent and young woman. Let’s make the society work for every adolescent and young woman, especially those who are more vulnerable.
