For many young people, migration begins with a dream. A better job. A safer environment. A future with greater opportunities. But for thousands of vulnerable people, that dream can quickly become a nightmare when migration is pursued without adequate information, protection or legitimate pathways.

It is against this backdrop that Alia Joke Oreoluwa, Executive Director of the Voice of Talia Initiative (VOTI), has chosen to make the protection of migrants, returnees, survivors and vulnerable people the centrepiece of her advocacy.

Her approach is simple but powerful: listen to migrants, learn from their experiences and turn those experiences into action.

Under its guiding principle, “Nothing About Migrants Without the Voice and Experience of Migrants,” VOTI has emerged as an advocacy platform seeking to ensure that migrants are not reduced to statistics, headlines or victims in need of rescue, but are recognised as people whose experiences can provide solutions to the challenges surrounding migration.

From awareness to action

For Oreoluwa, migration advocacy cannot end with seminars, conferences or public statements.

It must reach the young people who are considering migration, the communities vulnerable to trafficking, the schools where future migrants are being educated and the institutions responsible for protecting them.

This philosophy has informed VOTI’s programmes and partnerships, including its “Japa the Right Way” programme, designed to promote informed, safe and responsible migration.

Through partnerships with other organisations, VOTI has also participated in sensitisation campaigns aimed at helping young people understand the risks associated with irregular migration, trafficking, exploitation and unsafe migration routes.

One notable collaboration was with the Morenike Foundation from Lagos, through which sensitisation activities were undertaken to strengthen awareness and encourage young people to make informed decisions about migration.

The message is deliberately different from simply telling young people not to migrate.

Rather, it asks a more important question: If people want to migrate, how can they do so safely, legally and with adequate information?

Taking migration education into schools

Perhaps one of VOTI’s most significant interventions is its effort to bring migration education into the classroom.

Through its partnership with LACE’s Migrant Project, the initiative has engaged teachers and school heads on the need to incorporate migration-related issues into school curricula.

For Oreoluwa, this is critical.

Young people should not first learn about trafficking, irregular migration or the dangers of unsafe journeys after someone they know has disappeared or suffered abuse.

They need access to accurate information before they make potentially life-changing decisions.

The school, therefore, becomes more than a place for conventional academic learning. It becomes an important first line of prevention.

Teachers and school administrators, when properly equipped, can help students understand migration choices, identify vulnerabilities and recognise the warning signs of trafficking and exploitation.

Oreoluwa’s contribution to the LACE Migrant Project was recognised with an award, underscoring her growing role in migrant-focused advocacy.

Reaching students before traffickers do

VOTI has also taken its sensitisation efforts directly to students, working in partnership with the Edo State Migration Agency.

The intervention is built around a crucial reality: prevention must happen before exploitation.

Young people facing unemployment, poverty, peer pressure or unrealistic expectations about life abroad can become easy targets for traffickers and unscrupulous agents.

By engaging students directly, VOTI seeks to replace misinformation with knowledge and desperation with informed choices.

Its work is therefore not simply about migration. It is about protecting the choices and futures of vulnerable young people.

Building a coalition against irregular migration

Oreoluwa’s advocacy has also extended beyond schools and community sensitisation to stakeholder engagement.

VOTI has participated in stakeholder meetings focused on finding practical ways of tackling irregular migration in Edo State.

Such engagements recognise that irregular migration is too complex to be solved by one organisation or government agency.

It requires cooperation among migration agencies, civil society organisations, schools, communities, law enforcement institutions, educators, development organisations and, most importantly, migrants and people with lived migration experience.

This is where VOTI’s philosophy becomes particularly relevant.

The organisation believes that those who have experienced migration should have a place at the table when policies and programmes affecting migrants are designed.

When advocacy becomes personal

But perhaps the clearest demonstration of Oreoluwa’s approach is found not in conferences or policy meetings, but in the individual lives she has touched.

VOTI has assisted vulnerable young people by connecting them with opportunities to acquire practical skills and become economically independent.

In one case, a vulnerable boy was supported and placed to learn welding, fabrication and other handiwork.

In another, a vulnerable girl was supported and connected to an environment where she could learn hairstyling, make-up and decoration.

These interventions may appear modest when compared with large development programmes, but their significance is profound.

For a vulnerable young person, a skill can mean independence.

For a young person at risk of trafficking, an alternative livelihood can mean protection.

For someone facing hopelessness, learning a trade can provide a reason to believe in a future at home.

Oreoluwa’s intervention reflects an understanding that trafficking prevention cannot rely entirely on warnings.

Sometimes, the most effective anti-trafficking intervention is to give a vulnerable young person something meaningful to do, a skill to depend on and a future to look forward to.

Beyond statistics

The work of Voice of Talia Initiative is rooted in a rejection of the tendency to discuss migration only through numbers.

Behind every migration statistic is a human being.

Behind every returnee is a story.

Behind every trafficking survivor is an experience that deserves to be heard.

And behind every vulnerable young person is a future that can either be protected or lost.

This human-centred approach explains VOTI’s emphasis on dignity, justice, compassion, integrity, empowerment, inclusion and accountability.

Its vision is a world where every migrant is heard, protected, respected and treated with dignity, irrespective of migration status or experience.

Its mission combines advocacy, awareness, counselling, empowerment and partnerships to protect migrants, support survivors and returnees, promote safe migration and ensure that people with migration experience have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting their lives.

Turning experience into change

Oreoluwa’s work comes at a time when migration remains one of the defining social and economic issues confronting young Africans.

For many young Nigerians, the desire to “japa” is driven by legitimate aspirations for a better life. But the absence of reliable information and safe pathways can expose them to traffickers, smugglers, exploitation and dangerous journeys.

The answer, therefore, cannot simply be to condemn migration.

It must involve creating informed choices, expanding legitimate opportunities, strengthening protection mechanisms and ensuring that vulnerable people have alternatives.

That is the space VOTI is seeking to occupy.

Its message is straightforward:

Listen to the voices. Learn from the experience. Protect the vulnerable. Build a safer future.

For Alia Joke Oreoluwa, giving migrants a voice is not a slogan.

It is a call to action.

Through school sensitisation, stakeholder engagement, safe-migration advocacy, partnerships, counselling and livelihood support, she is building an approach that connects policy advocacy with the realities of people at risk.

And perhaps most importantly, she is demonstrating that migration advocacy does not always have to begin in government offices or international conferences.

Sometimes, it begins with sitting down with a young person, listening to their fears, understanding their dreams and helping them find a safer path.

That is the essence of Voice of Talia Initiative:

Giving Migrants a Voice — Turning Lived Experience into Change.