By Ganiyat Abiade, Lagos
As part of the celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child, a non-for profit organisation, the Human and Social Sustainability (HSSN) Africa, has empowered female children with STEAM Education, financial literacy, among others to prepare them for the future.
They were also taken through sexual and reproductive health education and how to maintain good hygiene.
The executive director of HSSN Africa, Funmilayo Oyekanmi, spoke at the lecture to mark the Girl Child day tagged ‘Girls vision for the future’ organised by the group.
The second edition of the GirlPower Programme was aimed at closing the gender gap in poverty through early and gender-responsive education.
The programme, which held at the Ideal Girls Junior High School in Surulere, Lagos, had over 300 students from the school and Obele Community Junior High School in attendance.
Oyekanmi, a girl-child advocate, solicited the support of stakeholders to empower girls, amplify their voices and ensure a better future for all.
She stated that her not-for-profit organisation would continue to engage and teach young girls on academic excellence, STEAM careers, financial literacy, and others to position them as global leaders.
She said, “We have put this programme together just for you (students) and we have a lot of speakers that will be coming to engage with you over the period of three days and even after this event. We have sessions on leadership and Innovation to help you to be better leaders, on STEAM careers to know how to explore industries in the science field, tech field, engineering field, and all other fields that girls should explore.
“We also have sessions on academic excellence, to teach you how to be better in your academics, how to manage your mental health, and improve in your overall self-development. Another very important session I want you to pay attention to is financial literacy that would teach you how to save, budget, and build wealth.
“Finally, there are sessions on sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence and these sessions are supposed to be safe spaces for you to engage and open up and share any experiences that you want the speakers to address.”
The president of the Rotary club, Ikeja, Ms Eniitan Sophie in her lecture encouraged the girl-child to embrace good and healthy living through preventive measures.
Sophie said, “There are a lot of myths we need to teach these girls about. So we want to catch them young because when we teach them, many of them will become mothers too.
“They can help us spread the information around. I am also very pained by a lot of preventable or avoidable diseases that simple information like this and routine check can just prevent,” she said.
She stressed the importance of cleanliness and proper hygiene during their menstrual period, emphasising the need to know their genotype.
“Look at sickle cell for instance, many of them are young and we cannot pretend these girls are not having sex.
“I know in our country we are not comfortable talking about sex. We just want to hide or pretend like these people are not having sex. But the truth is, these young girls know more than what we think they know. So, if you don’t talk to them, they read about these things online, and they tend to pick up the wrong information. And that’s why we try to engage them personally,” she said.
The executive director, Human and Social Sustainability (HSSN) Africa, Mrs. Funmilola Oyekanmi ,encouraged them to embrace the preventive teachings on how to maintain good and healthy living.
“There are sessions on Sexual & Reproductive Health and Gender-based Violence and these sessions are supposed to be safe spaces for you to engage and open up and share any experience that you want the speakers to address,” she added.
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