…holds five-day girls’ empowerment, safety programme
A non-governmental organization, Value Female Network, has empowered and trained no fewer than 50 girls’ in Ekiti State as advocates against Female Genital Mutilation, teenage pregnancy and childhood marriage.
The five-day programme, which held in Omuo-Ekiti, with participants drawn from Ekiti East and Gbonyin local government areas of Ekiti State, was organized by Value Female Network, VFN, with support from United Nations Populations Fund, UNFPA.
The Executive Director of VFN, Dr Costly Aderibigbe-Saba said the programme is targeted at empowering out-of-school girls’ as advocates against harmful practices in their communities.
According to her, the empowerment and safety programme is not just focusing on eradicating FGM but a comprehensive sexuality education aimed at tackling the issue of teenage pregnancy and early childhood marriage.
She said: “Value Female Network Africa is a youth and survival led NGO working to advocate against harmful practices in Nigeria. We work to advocate against FGM and child marriage. We work in nine states in Nigeria and we are so glad that the UNFPA is partnering with our organization to bring this programme to the girls’ that really needs the impact.
“This programme is targeting out-of-school girl’s and they have been trained and empowered. We also expect the adolescent girls to go out and speak to their peers. Each girl is expected to reach out to 14 more girls and it means that out-of-school girls that are in the non-formal sector will be reached out to by the advocates.
“We want the community to also join the fight against FGM because it has no benefits and there is no reason to justify this harmful practice. One of the things we discovered that a lot of adolescents girls’ are already mothers. 16-year-old already have a 3-year-old child. You can imagine at what age she got pregnant and now she is a mother.
“For us, this programme is not just focusing on FGM, it’s a comprehensive sexuality education programme. It is tackling the issue of teenage pregnancy, how girls can negotiate life skills, be assertive, understand their bodies, rights and dignity and even how they can get help. We are going to follow up their activities. We hope with these pilot girls, they are going to spark up conversation around teenage pregnancy and early childhood marriage.”
On her part, the Gender FGM Analyst For UNFPA, Uzoma Ayodeji demanded that girls’ should be given their rights as individuals and shouldn’t be corced into harmful practices that are inimical to their well-being.
She called on the participants to serve as champions against FGM, teenage pregnancy and childhood marriage in their communities.
Her words: “We have empowered them to go and empower others. We are looking forward to the reports and for us to do more as UNFPA.
“Girls’ should have the right of choice, the right to go to school, the right to choose when she wants to have a baby. We are going to set up programmes to address that issue.
“FGM is a long term harmful practice. The custodian of the culture feel that they have to do it on the girl, either when they are entering womanhood or some of them cut their babies when they are 8-day-old.
“We are bringing this programme to let them know that it is harmful and there is no medical benefits. We are hoping that FGM will be eliminated in these communities.
“As advocates, we are expecting them to go back into their communities where they came from to enlighten girls of their age to talk about FGM that it is bad and should be stopped, to enlighten their parents and grandparents.”
Some of the participants who spoke with newsmen pledged to carry out the enormous task as champions and advocates against harmful practices in their communities.
In a remark, the representative of the Gender Desk Officer, Ministry of Health Ekiti State, Dupe Amodu advised the participants to speak out and spark up the campaign against FGM and other harmful practices.
Also, High Chief Abayomi Oni, one of the Oba-in-Council in Omuo-Ekiti condemned the harmful practices on girls’ while pledging that the traditional institution will rally round to educate their subjects against practicing FGM.