Akin Fadeyi Foundation Empowers Bwari Area Council Staff, Students on Safety Awareness

Funmi Ogundare

The Akin Fadeyi Foundation recently held a sensitisation workshop on the ‘Be Safe Initiative’ in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation.

The programme, held at Bwari Area Council, Abuja, with the theme ‘Empowered to Create Safe Spaces Online and Beyond’, was aimed at promoting safety awareness among students and staff by equipping them with the requisite skills and essential knowledge to address and combat critical safety issues.

The founder and Executive Director, Mr. Akin Fadeyi, explained in a statement that the Be Safe initiative demonstrates the foundation’s continued commitment to its Behavioural Change, Gender Equity, and Social Inclusion (GESI) initiatives.

Fadeyi said, ” It’s a journey that we have embarked upon to empower students and staff, equipping them with the requisite skills to combat corruption, cyberbullying, sextortion, gender-based violence and other issues of social injustice.”

The Programme Coordinator, Patience Ismaila, stated that the sensitisation workshop marked a significant milestone in promoting safety awareness among students and staff in the area council.

The programme featured participants from three public senior secondary schools within the Bwari Area Council: Government Day Secondary School Bwari, Government Day Secondary School Dutsen-Alhaji, and Government Secondary School, Jabi.

It also featured interactive training sessions, including discussions, role-plays, advocacy drama messages (Corruption not in my country) and activities that reinforced the concepts taught. Participants were equipped to serve as champions of the initiative and empowered to conduct step-down training sessions for their peers. Each participant received workshop materials, including jotters, pens, and the Be Safe manual, designed to support ongoing learning and to serve as reference materials.

During the interactive session, questions centred around corruption were asked.

In her response, the AFF project coordinator stated, “Corruption is a learned behaviour, and the urge to engage in it is also learned.”

She said that while the urge may come and go, what truly matters is how one responds to it. She added that it is important to adopt the mindset that change begins with oneself.

Some students who shared their thoughts on the conference explained that they feel confident and can speak out, but they should also be mindful of the information they share or post online.

Some staff also expressed delight about the workshop, saying they are encouraged to impart the knowledge on being safe to their students.

They appealed to other organisations and NGOs to organise such programmes in schools, which would educate students on the issue of bullying, which is prevalent in senior secondary schools.