Daily Chronicle
In its resolve to see that the girl child is not denied access to education, a Bauchi based NGO, Nurture & Empower Her Initiative (NEHI) has pledged to float a conditional cash transfer program that will take care of paying school fees for the girl children.
The NGO also on Saturday, organized a one day sensitization for the girl child to create awareness on how she will take care of herself and be protected against any form of abuse and molestation.
The sensitization program tagged, ‘My body is my body’ was organized for over 70 girls of the BASOVCA Orphanage in Bauchi during which the girls were taught how to take good care of their sensitive body parts.
Executive Director of the NGO, Florence Uzoanya explained that, “our organization is advertising for the right of the girl child as well as eradication of all forms of abuses and violence against the girl children” .
She added that, “Actually we came here to teach the girls on body safety rules, we want them to know that their bodies are their bodies, nobody has the right to touch them, nobody has the right to hurt them, nobody has the right to touch their private parts”.
We here to make them know all these and also to administer this through songs because we believe that songs are the easiest way to preach to the children”, she stressed.
The Executive Director also said that, “Our target here is 70 girl children. We have relief materials, educational materials that we are going to give them, sanitary materials, pants, vests and other writing materials” .
She further said that, “We know that it is not going to be an easy, we are not expecting that it will be that easy considering the barriers of religion and culture but with God, it will be a success. We are well prepared and know that it will go down well.
Florence Uzoanya added that, “We have a lot of programme for the girl child in Bauchi state. We want to ensure that no girl is at home without going to school, we want to ensure that no girl is left behind” .
According to her, “We are going to ensure that we see how to push them, even those who cannot afford to pay school fees we will be making conditional cash transfer for such girls because we really want the girls to be in school” .
Christabe Nwosu in her presentation, taught the girls to always speak out if anyone touches their sensitive body parts telling them that nobody has the right to touch them without their consent no matter who the person is.
She added that they should not be afraid to challenge anybody who wants to molest them encouraging them to immediately shout so that people around can come to their rescue.
Uche Emmanuel then took the girls through the sensitive parts of their bodies that are sacred and must not be touched by anyone no matter who the person is.
In her reaction, the Head Mistress of the School within the Orphanage, Mairo Abubakar thanked the NGO for coming to sensitize the girls saying that it was the first time such will be done.
She then thanked the Chairperson of BASOVCA, Yelwa Abubakar Tafawa Balewa for paying proper attention to the orphanage since she came on board stressing that there is a significant improvement in the running of the home.
Mairo Abubakar called for more visits by NGOs and other spirited individuals in the society stressing that government alone cannot take care of the orphans.