The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Monday encouraged girl children to always speak out whenever they are being violated.
They stated this while sensitising students of Government Girls Technical College, Agba, Ishielu LGA.
The programme was organised by Ebonyi state Ministry of Women Affairs with support from UNICEF to commemorate International Day of Girl Child with the theme, “My voice, Our Equal Future.”
Speaking at the event, the HOD, child protection department, Mr. Emmanuel Igwe, said the program was to create awareness among girl-child to stand up for their rights.
He said: “International Day of Girl Child is commemorated every October 11th, it is aimed at creating awareness among the girl child to stand up for their right, to voice out their right, to demand their right and to resist any form of abuse coming from anybody.
“A typical example was the case of two girls from Igbeagu community, Njideka 17 years and Nnedinma 15 years that tried to subject them to female genital mutilation. They resisted their parents and ran away from home to sort assistance from our ministry and other line ministries working against FGM.
“Their running away and resistance led to Izzi clan, made up of three local government areas, embarking on open declarations of FGM in June 2017 and that marked the first time such declaration was done in Nigeria,” he said.
