By Ganiyat Abiade, Lagos
Female secondary students have been urged to abstain from pre-marital sexual intercourse in an attempt to avoid unwanted pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD).
The president of the Rotary club, Ikeja, Ms Eniitan Sophie gave this advice during a lecture to mark the Girl Child day tagged ‘Girls vision for the future’ organised in collaboration with Human and Social Sustainability (HSSN) Africa.
The second edition of the GirlPower Programme was aimed at closing the gender gap in poverty through early and gender-responsive education.
The programme was held at the Ideal Girls Junior High School in Surulere, Lagos and had over 300 students from the school and Obele Community Junior High School in attendance.
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 stressed the importance of cleanliness and proper hygiene during their menstrual period, emphasising the need to know their genotype.
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.
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 non-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.”
