AGILE, NISD Prioritize Empowerment, Social Development Skills for Girl Child in Ekiti

Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti 

A safe space session for the girl child has been launched by the New Initiative for Social Development (NISD) in its effort to empower girls in their adolescents with critical life skills that will help them navigate their adulthood.

NISD, with the support of the Ekiti State Adolescent Girls Initiative For Learning And Empowerment (AGILE), organised a one day workshop at the conference hall of the Ministry of Education in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State weekend.

The workshop was organised as a contact point to ensure that the future of the girl child is secured and safe while creating an enabling environment where the girl child can be protected.

The project coordinator of AGILE, Yewande Adesua, said the stakeholders’ engagement is targeted at empowering the girls in secondary schools with life skills that will guide them in their future endeavours. 

She maintained that the safe space session is carried out by guidance counsellors who can relate with them as friends and educate them through the safe space curriculum and the deals with reproductive health amongst others.

“AGILE Project is supported by World Bank to improve existing infrastructures in secondary schools, promote social and behavioural change through communication, engagement with traditional rulers and aged tutors,” Adesua said.

The coordinator declared that the project is designed to target young girls to protect them from predators who might want to take advantage of them and also offer succour to those who have been abused one way or the other.

“We have had the first phase of this project in 101 schools where safe space session was provided for girls to meet with their mentors to bare their minds without been judged,” she concluded.

In her speech, the Commissioner for Education in Ekiti State, Dr. Olabimpe Aderiye, reiterated the commitment of the state government to the safe space schools initiative. 

She explained that the government is ensuring that schools in the state are safe with perimeter fencing, gates and guards with the necessary trainings so that the students can identify a toxic or dangerous environment.

“This stakeholders’ forum is to ensure that we scale up the things we have done in 101 schools. Girls undoubtedly has the higher chance of getting raped than boys; not that boys don’t get abused as well but the focus is more on girls but of course we are not leaving the boys and as such, renovation is ongoing in all the schools and all the boys and girls are involved,” Aderiye said.

The stakeholders present at the event lauded the project while assuring the project facilitators of their unwavering support to ensure the society is conducive for the girl child’s survival.