Sexual Offenses Awareness and Response Initiative (SOAR) has taken it ‘Right to be a Girls Project’ empowerment of vulnerable adolescent girls from age 10 to 16 years old to Government Secondary School (GSS) Kabusa, a community under the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in Abuja.
The girls were taught on how to give the right information and life-skills to protect themselves from violations, improve their ability to speak out against sexual violence and forced marriage and negotiate for improved opportunities for themselves.
Some of the students who spoke to Blueprint, Ibrahim Fatima from SS1 C, 14 years old said the Initiative has impacted her life positively and has helped herself esteem.
According to her, before now, she can’t speak for herself and she used to be shy and timid but now ,she was taught on her right to speak for herself and for other Girls.
In her words “The Initiative has helped my self confidence and I don’t allow anyone to take me for granted . I will tell the Girls in my community about what we were taught that we have right and impact more knowledge to them.
Another student, Olayinka Peculiar , SS1 said the initiative taught them about the meaning of Sexual Violence and how Men treat Girls in the society and ” they told us that Girls are also human and have rights because we are unique and beautiful in God’s nature”.
“We are encouraged to speak out whenever we encounter any form of violence . I was also encouraged to be an advocate to eradicate such things happening in our community .
Peculiar urged the Federal Government to put in place modalities such as agencies to protect Girls right through various and continuious awareness programs.
The Principal of the school, Mr Aso Hycienth who couldn’t hold his excitement lauded Soar Initiative for impacting more knowledge on Girls right to the students.
He observed that the Girls participation has been encouraging and what they have learnt shows that they are better off in the society.
He said the Girls now have a better knowledge compared to a girl outside the school because they were equipped with morals of how to discipline their life , behave well and be better in the society.
Also, the Project Officer, Yakubu Levi explained that the reason why they are in the school was because there are some communities like Chafuyi and Pigba Kasa of Apo District in the FCT and four public schools are serving the communities which are (GSS Kabusa, JSS Kabusa, JSS Waru and LEA Pigba Kasa).
He explained that these girls were mobilized and trained in safe spaces established in the project, using the 12 session SOAR Girls Empowered to Arise (GEMS Arise) Curriculum and the project is funded by Mundo Cooparante.
He said that these adolescent girls were supported to develop action plans and implement it collectively.
In his words “We have done alot of sensitization and we have also built capacity of community leaders . They have also formed Community Child Protection Committee who are responsible for preventing and sensitising the community and they have been doing well .
He further explained that aside child protection, they have addressed so many cases on Sexual and Gender Base Violence, Wife battery and domestic violence and some cases were reported to NAPTIP and others.
“Some the community leaders identifed cases of rape as a result of the project and we sensitized, counselled and connected them to hospitals where they get help among others ,” he said.
