“The STERON Dignity Project has shown Takushara that someone has not looked away“
*Photo:Group Captain Rakiya Omar (Rtd), President of Steron Group.
Every community has things it does not say out loud. In Takushara, one of those things has always been what our daughters go through every month. Many of our girls have missed classes, stayed indoors and kept quiet, not because they were unwell, but because we could not afford what they needed and were too embarrassed to talk about it.
On Sunday, 4 October 2026, that silence was broken.
At the Takushara Junior Secondary School premises, the STERON Dignity Project came to us with its “End Period Poverty” campaign. As a mother and a member of this community, I want to say a very big thank you, and to say it loudly.
*The woman who refused to look away*
The person I most want to thank is Group Captain Rakiya Omar (Rtd), President of Steron Group. She did not keep her distance from our struggles. Her words, spoken with the love of a mother and the discipline of a soldier, gave our women and girls hope.
Her words are still with us. “The STERON Dignity Project is not charity. It is a promise,” she said. She promised that no girl will miss her lessons for lack of a simple pad, and that no girl will ever be asked to choose between her education and her dignity. For those of us who have lived with that choice, those words meant more than I can describe.
She told our girls that there is “no shame in being a girl”. She reminded the men and elders among us that we are the walls that shelter our daughters, and that we must speak to them openly and without shame. And she said that a girl in Wasa, a girl in Takushara and a girl in the camp should know that Nigeria has not looked away. I believe our girls heard her, and I believe they will remember it for the rest of their lives.
The pads that were given out are reusable. For families like ours, this matters a great deal. It means a girl can be prepared month after month without her parents having to find money for something new every time. Together with the lectures on menstrual hygiene, it means our girls now have both the knowledge and the means to take care of themselves. This is how dignity is rebuilt, one girl at a time.
Group Captain Rakiya Omar spent many years in the Medical Corps of the Nigerian Air Force, and it shows. She understands that care is more than medicine, and that sometimes the strongest medicine is dignity. On behalf of the women, girls, youth and elders of Takushara, I say thank you, ma. May Allah reward you abundantly.
*A personal debt of gratitude*
I also have a personal thank you. Steron Mining has not only reached our community through events. It has reached my own family. The Community Development Officer personally took on my daughter’s neurological case as part of Steron Mining’s corporate social responsibility, and handled it with a care and commitment that I will never forget. When a mother is worried about her child, it means everything to know that someone is standing with her. I cannot repay that kindness, but I can say it publicly: thank you.
*A leader with compassion*
Behind all of this is the Managing Director of Steron, Abubakar Sadiq Omar, mni. A company can easily see its host communities only as a place where it works. Under his leadership, Steron has chosen to see us as people. His compassion is the reason a company working in the ground beneath us also reaches the homes above it. We are grateful, Sir, and we pray that Allah continues to bless you and all those who work with you.
*A call to our community*
To my fellow mothers, fathers, elders and youth of Takushara: let us keep the promise that was made on that day. Let us speak openly to our daughters, keep them in school and protect their dignity. Let us also show Steron that their kindness has fallen on grateful ground.
To Group Captain Rakiya Omar (Rtd), to the Steron Community Development Foundation team, to the Community Development Officer, and to Abubakar Sadiq Omar, mni: Takushara says thank you. We have seen what you have done, and we will not forget it.
*Maryam Ibrahim writes from Takushara Community.
