Focused on ending Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child marriage, teenage pregnancies and all forms of harmful practices associated with adolescent girls in Osun State, the Initiative for Girls’ Right and Health Development (IGRHD) recently engaged school teachers, counsellors, and proprietors as strategic partners to achieve this goal.
Speaking at a workshop attended by representatives of private and public secondary schools in Osun State, Executive Director, IGRHD, Mrs. Ayodeji Bello- Awodoyin, said the IGRHD had carried out projects to advance the rights of the girl child in recent years.
She particularly mentioned the ‘SheMustKnow’ project, which is designed to equip girls of reproductive ages in secondary schools with the right knowledge to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The curriculum covers menstrual hygiene, bodily anatomy, reproductive health, myths and implications of harmful practices.
Bello-Awodoyin noted that within the current academic session, IGRHD would intensify efforts not only in the sensitisation project but also in training for school representatives, scholarship opportunities for students, case management, training during Parents Teachers Association meetings and the annual arts competition against SGBV to commemorate 16 Days of Activism.
The schools representatives spoke about the implications of the absence of school counsellors in public schools and how it has contributed to increased prevalence of sexual harassment with zero channel for complaints in school premises.
They said that when female students are at the verge of experiencing FGM or any form of abuse, they have no one within the school system to confide in, adding that the ways they recognise a female student struggling emotionally include; dizziness and low concentration in classroom and extracurricular activities, late coming, being withdrawn, being unnecessarily rude and poor academic performance.
The teachers also harped on the need to make the VAPP Act effective and known to all while ensuring that teachers garner relevant skills to meet the emotional needs of students and respond to cases of sexual and gender-based violence among students.
A representative of the Ministry of Education, Prince Adedeji Abdulazeez Oluwatoyin, who is the Local Inspector of Education, Ife East, assured IGRHD of the support of the ministry and mobilisation for future events, while the Director, Author Schools, Mrs. Rachel Talabi, pleaded for inclusion of primary schools in the interventions and projects of IGRHD moving forward.
Technical Consultant and Director of Operations at IGRHD, Temitayo Awodoyin, in his remarks assured the school representatives of consistent communication and engagements from IGRHD.
He asked for the spirit of cooperation as stakeholders in ensuring that girls experience safe adolescence, adding that together, harmful practices affecting the girl child would come to an end.
