Why the Footsoldiers Project exists
Trafficking out of Edo State rarely begins with force. More often it begins with an offer, and the offer lands because nothing else in the room is offering anything.
When someone is identified as at risk, what happens next too often depends on whose personal phone number is to hand.
The Footsoldiers Project answers on both sides at once. On the protection side, it builds local evidence, takes awareness to the streets, markets, schools and custodial settings where recruitment happens, and creates a dependable route from the person who identifies someone at risk to the agency able to help. On the livelihood side, it gives young people skills that turn into income, so there is something real to say yes to instead.
Who is behind it
The project is delivered by the Social Work Footsoldiers, a coalition of four youth-led Nigerian organisations. OPSWI leads Omosigho and brings its social work practitioner network and OPSWI ConnectHub to the work.
Operation Preach Social Work Initiative (OPSWI)
Professional standards, the practitioner network and the Omosigho platform.
Tabitha’s Alabaster Initiative
School outreach on education and speaking out against abuse, and survivor-sensitive language across the project.
Great Wings Initiative
Outreach in markets, classrooms and custodial settings, with a mental health lens.
Chris Charis Concept
Creative and technology skills, and the Fusion: Art Meets Tech bootcamp.
The coalition is guided by a Coalition Advisory Council, which holds approval over safeguarding. Every phase has one accountable owner and ends in something real: a published finding, a signed agreement, a finished piece of work or a live platform.
Four phases, each built on the one before
Phase One
Listen
September 2025 to September 2026
Twelve months of research alongside awareness outreach in streets and motor parks, markets, classrooms and custodial settings. The findings map where risk concentrates, test what communities actually need, and record what happens today when someone is identified.
CompletedFieldwork complete. Findings published October 2026.
Phase Two
Convene
September to November 2026
We are meeting the agencies, shelters, legal aid providers, community structures and skills partners already doing this work, to agree on the record what a referral must contain and who will receive one. Omosigho is designed around their answers.
In progressPhase Three
Equip
26 to 28 November 2026
Fusion: Art Meets Tech, a three-day residential creative and technology bootcamp in Benin City for 40 young people aged 18 and above, including scholarship places for young women at heightened risk. Every participant leaves with a finished piece of work, a pitch delivered on stage and a next step booked. The bootcamp closes with the Fusion Art and Tech Awards. Led by Chris Charis Concept.
UpcomingPhase Four
Connect
December 2026
A sector conference where the findings are presented, partners commit on the record and Omosigho is launched. Led by OPSWI.
UpcomingMeet Omosigho
Omosigho: social work against human trafficking
When a social worker, teacher, market trader or student identifies someone at risk of trafficking, what happens next should not depend on who they know. Omosigho is the platform OPSWI is building to close that gap: a dependable route from the person who identifies a survivor or someone at risk to the agency with the mandate and capacity to help.
“The child surpasses wealth.”
What Omosigho will do
Safe referral
A structured way to refer someone, asking only for the information receiving agencies have said they need to act.
Routing to trusted agencies
Each referral goes to a named, onboarded agency, with an acknowledgement and a record of every step.
A directory of practitioners and services
Maintained with OPSWI’s social work network.
An awareness hub
Campaign messages and learning resources from the Footsoldiers Project, under a name communities recognise.
What Omosigho is not
Omosigho is not an emergency service, and it does not provide rehabilitation itself. It connects people to the agencies that do. If someone is in immediate danger, contact the nearest police station or NAPTIP office straight away. Emergency hotlines are listed in the Crisis Support section of your ConnectHub dashboard.
Built on ConnectHub
Omosigho grows out of OPSWI ConnectHub, and its directory is maintained by the same community of practitioners.
Launch
Omosigho will be launched at the Footsoldiers Project sector conference in December 2026. It will begin accepting live referrals once its data protection and safeguarding reviews are complete.
Be part of the launch.
Register to hear first when Omosigho goes live, or tell us how your organisation would like to work with us: as a referral partner, a supporter or a collaborator.
- Launch updates as Omosigho moves towards December 2026
- A follow-up from the team if you would like to partner, support or volunteer
- Your details used only for Omosigho and the Footsoldiers Project
“Nobody is coming. That is why we walked.”