A case has been made for parents to educate their wards, particularly the girl-child early on the dangers of unprotected sex, how to avoid falling prey to people who abuse them sexually and how to make informed decisions on their sexualities as they are growing to become adults.
The Executive Director of the International Centre for Sexual Reproductive Rights (INCRESE), Dorothy Nuhu-Aken’ova, made the observation during the graduation of 64 trainees from a leadership training programme organised by the NGO in Minna, Niger State.
The one-year leadership training programme named after a woman activist in the state, Hajara Usman Girls Leadership Programme (GLP), she said was aimed at equipping the beneficiaries with techniques on how to ward off sexual aggressions.
With the graduation of the 64 adolescents that enrolled for the programme, Nuhu-Aken’ova said that the beneficiaries are expected to share what they learnt with their peers in their respective schools.
About 80 students aged between 11 and 19 drawn from the islamiyya and secondary schools in Minna, the state capital, enrolled for the programme but only 64 scaled through as they were empowered with knowledge on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR).
According to her, “the INCRESE organizes annual training to empower boys and girls aged between 11 and 19 with leadership skills, life competency, gender information on HIV/AIDs and sexual reproductive rights to enable them make informed decisions about their sexualities.
“The beneficiaries you are seeing today are not too young as many believe because it is better they grow up with the knowledge that being a victim of sexual abuse and will not know what to do. With what they have acquired, the message on how to protect themselves against abuses will spread”, Nunu-Aken’ova said.
The INCRESE executive director however enumerated some of the challenges faced in the fight against all forms of sexual abuses to include; language barriers as many of the enrolled only understand their local dialect which again makes them vulnerable to attacks.
