Nigeria Economic Growth Must Factor The Girl-Child – YEF

A youth focused gon-governmental organization, Youth Empowerment Foundation, (YEF) has said its objective is geared towards improving the quality of life of the girl child.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos, the executive secretary, YEF, Mrs Iyalola Akinjimoh, said, “we are running a project called ‘Goal Project’ for the girl child funded by Standard Chartered Bank. Nigeria’s population is about 49 percent women and 51 percent men. If we want the economic development in Nigeria, we have to take that 49 percent along. Otherwise, the pressure of the development will fall heavily on the men.

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“It is important to start early with girls because when they are in primary and secondary school, they may be misled. We train them in such a way that we are already preparing them to their roles as mothers, leaders at community level and even at the national level.

“Also, the fact that a woman is closest to the child from the womb. If you train a woman or a girl properly the person is in a better position to raise children that are well behaved, that their capacity is built and would have access to education. If a woman doesn’t have access to education, she is more likely to not encourage her children.”

Mrs Akinjimoh however said that the girl child are the ones who get pregnant as the project is also focused in teaching the consequences of unplanned pregnancy as well as ways to avoid pregnancy, adding that a woman’s role is not only birthing a child as the foundation also train them in leadership.

According to her, parents should teach their children the right morals as the social media has exposed these children to a lot of things they would not have been exposed to, adding that “we need to recognise this and try as much as possible to protect these girls and boys from the social media.”

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Speaking about the Goal Project, she said, over the past eight years, “the project has opened a whole angle both good and bad. Now we are working with 15 schools in Lagos, 16 schools in Abuja and 10 schools in Ibadan.

“On a regular basis, girls get pregnant and are chased out of the home. Some of them have been abused. So, we provide them with shelter. As I speak, we have cases in court where different type of abuses are been reported.

“We have to remove these girls who were abused from their previous environment to a new environment. In every year we distribute information to about 10000 girls on several basis. They are told about their rights and they go through financial settlement and we always let them know that their lives come with responsibilities.”

She called on parents and guardians to note that the need of a girl child is not too different from that of a boy child, stressing that a girl child needs information and equal opportunity to recreate and create.

The principal, Adebola Baptist Junior High School, Surulere, Mrs Odum Chinyere, remarked that the Goal Project is a great project, “by African culture, the girl child is intimidated. Thanks to the Standard Chartered Bank for coming up with such a project where the girls build up confidence through various programs they are exposed to.”

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She however called on other stakeholders to key into such program as it has helped shaped the girl child as well as train her on how to protect herself from abuse.

One of the benefactors of YEF, Miss Atueyi Ijeoma Flora, said she joined the project in 2012, “I used to be shy but through the project’s leadership training, I conquered my fears. I was later elected as the class captain then. I am through with secondary school but I still work for Goal as a volunteer. Goal also gave me the laptop I used for my research work. Right now, I have been admitted to study English and Literature at University of Nigeria Nsukka.”

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