The Abiodun Essiet Initiative for Girls (AEIG), an NGO, has urged students and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to break the culture of silence around Sexual and Gender-based violence (SGBV).
The call was made during a town-hall meeting on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, at the Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event is with theme “Engaging the Youths as Anti-SGB Ambassadors on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in their Community”.
Mrs Abiodun Essiet, Founder, AEIG, said the meeting is aimed at engaging over 100 SGBV ambassadors in selected secondary schools to speak out against SGBV in the FCT.
She added that persons with disabilities would also be trained on steps to take to end the silence surrounding the menace.
“This meeting is specifically to train the youths across the six area councils in the FCT on sexual and gender-based violence. The youths are our representatives at the high school.
“They talk to their colleagues on SGBV and they call the attention of their counselors and teachers to any form of violence within the school premises.
“Since the inception of this project, we have gotten feedback from our ambassadors about issues concerning sex-for-marks or grade and we have sent those reports to SUBEB on some of the findings that we have.
But we have strengthened our ambassadors to know what to do at every point and we have NAPTIP protection officers across the six area councils as well as Nigeria Correctional Service Officers who will be sharing their contacts for them to call for further action,” she said.
Also speaking, Mrs Mayowa Akpati, Executive Director, AEIG, called on the ambassadors to remain agents of change in their respective communities.
“As part of our project which is Strengthening Traditional Justice Systems to Combat Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, we have organized sensitization seminars in community schools across the six area councils in Abuja.
“We have also reached over a thousand students and raised about 30 anti-SGBV ambassadors in these schools to become change agents not only in their schools, but also in their respective communities and the world at large.
“We cannot talk about sexual and gender-based violence without also talking about gender equality, because SGBV is rooted in gender inequality, the abuse of power and harmful norms,” she said.
Contributing, Master Ezekiel Josiah, an SGBV ambassador and student of the GSS Gwagwalada, said the training had made him to be brave and speak against the menace.
“Through the assistance of AEIG, we have learnt so much about the menace and how to help tackle it within the school environment.
“As a youth and teenager, this exposure has given us a moral role to be actively involved in engineering a positive change of narrative,” he said.
Another SGBV ambassador, Miss Abdulmu’min Zulfa, from Government Secondary School, Gwagwalada, appreciated the NGO for getting the students involved in the fight against SGBV.
“We got involved in educating our fellow youth on the menace especially how to promote gender equality and social inclusion in the society.
“There have been some records of SGBV from students, and as ambassadors, we talk and direct them to go to the guardian and counselling unit, where they are properly advised on what to do,” she said.(NAN)