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Executive Director of the Centre for Chidren’s Health Education Orintation and Protection (CEE-HOPE), Betty Abah has said that the world holds it a duty to celebrate the girl child because she is endangered and can easily be damaged.
Abah said this in Lagos during the celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child marked recently around the world.
The event which attracted girls from secondary schools in Loagos and Ogun States had facilitators drawn from the media and the civil society.
The event was a platform for the students to learn about the international day with the theme Digital Generation-Our Generation.’
“We are marking the International Day of the Girl Child to remind the world that the girl child matters,” Abah said.
On reason for the global celebration, Abah continued that, “Why the world is celebrating it is because the girl child is endangered and can easily be damaged through teenage pregnancy and abuse.”
She added that, “CEE-HOPE works in marginalised communities and we draw attention to girl issues.
“This year is talking about Digital Generation and we cannot be left out,” she said.
According to her, her organisation works in local communities including Monkey Village, Otto, Makoko and a few other marginalised communities where girls are vulnerable.
The event also featured the commissioning of a female football club raised by CEE-HOPE.
“We recently formed our football club, CEE-HOPE Football Club and there we work with girls between 13 and 18 years. We believe great things will come from them. We hope to have great stars come from this team and we are happy to engage the girls productively, giving them hope and encouraging them to maximise their talents,” she said.
Girls from Perfect Praise schools, Champions International College, Heirs of Salvation and the African Church Model College attended the event.
Other participants were girls from selected schools in Monkey Village, Opebi-Ikeja, Otto-Ilogbo in Yaba and Agbado-Oja community in Ogun State numbering a about 200 school girls who were also given free sanitary pads at the event.
Speaking at the event, Executive Director of Media Career Development Network (MCDN), Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, enjoined the girls to know that being girls is no barrier to achieving their dreams. He also said being members of the digital generation, they must be responsible and know their limits in the cyber space.
Otufodunrin whose only daughter got married recently motivated the participants with the experience of his daughter, Yemisi Otufodunrin, an Auditor with KPMG.
“My daughter got married last Saturday and I am very proud. Whatever you desire is possible, you don’t have to be a lesser being because you are a girl,” he said.
The former Online Editor and Director Special Publications at The Nation Newspaper added that, “We are in a world where many things are possible, gender is not a barrier and being a girl is not a barrier to accomplishing anything you are determined to achieve.”
Also at the event, the former General Manager of Radio One, Mrs. Funke Treasure Durodola encouraged the girls to have a dream and pursue it.
Durodola told the participants that about 1.3million girls drop out of school annually but with determination they can rise above the situation.
Relaying her experience, Durodola said “When I was younger I couldn’t stand in the public and talk. When we went for litterary and debating, society competition, I would give the debaters points and they would speak but I couldn’t talk in the public.
“Sometime they would say you know it, go and speak and when I would hold the microphone, I won’t be able to speak and they would clap and my school would fail.
“Who would ever believe that that girl who could not speak would be a broadcaster, a speaker, a mentor years after?
“It doesn’t matter what you can’t do now, it doesn’t define you, it doesn’t define what you can be. There is no dream you will dream today that you are serous with that God will not bless, you are possible,” she encouraged the little girls.
Stating further, the graduate of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, added that, “Today I am a writer and I have written three books of my own, I am a rights advocate. No matter what your talent is, hold it very well.”
Another facilitator at the event, the Executive Director, Healing Heart Foundation, Mrs. Sophy Mbanisi said the future is female and girls must not see themselves as second fiddle.
Mbanisi added that women around the world are taking over and taking on responsibilities unlike before.
“If you look now globally, women are taking over, becoming more relevant in the homes. It had been a man’s world in the past.
“God has bought the woman up to take charge of her life. There is power in dreaming big,” she said.
Talking to the girls on the need to have good role models, she said, “A role model is one that inspires you, someone that you look up to, who inspires you and helps you to become who you want to be.”
Reading from Proverbs 9:10-12, she said, “The fear of God is the beginng of wisdom, you have to dream big but the fear of God will help you and keep you at the top,” she admonished.
Coach of the CEE-HOPE FC, the Cecil’s Queens, Kilani Kudrat in her words said she believes in the members of the team and being a certified coach, she has all it takes to groom them to stardom.
“I am a university graduate and a certified coach. I was in training with the first national female team of Nigeria and later joined the Police Machine to play professional football in Nigeria. I am also a police officer,” she said.
Other speakers facilitated sessions at the event including Amaka Nneji, Yinka Kenny, Oluebube James and Rhoda Olorunfemi.
