For the girl-child to become a tool for the change the society desires, there must be deliberate efforts at protecting and giving them proper training.

A child rights advocate and executive director, Hope For Second Chance Foundation, HOSEC, Mrs. Ibukunoluwa Otesile made this known at a press conference to mark the 2021 International Day of the Girl-child.

Mrs. Otesile who expressed displeasure at the level of gender discrimination in the country, identified sexual abuse, denial of right to education, child marriage and female genital mutilation as some of the problems that are still challenging the existence of the girl-child.

She said statistics has shown that, one out of every six girls are likely to experience one form of sexual violence or the other before they clock sixteen years.

Speaking on the theme of this year’s international day of the Girl-child, “Digital Generation; Our generation”, Mrs. Otesile said there was the need to involve the girl-child, more in the Information and Communication Technology sector.

She said their involvement should therefore be done with a high sense of responsibility and caution for them not to be exposed to the negatives online.

Mrs. Otesile challenged members of the public to rise up and unanimously speak against sexual violence in the country.

Also speaking, Coordinator, Oyo State Sexual & Gender Violence Based Response Team, Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Dupe Awosemusi said that government has provided necessary machinery in terms of legal framework to achieve a better society.

She emphasized that all attention should not be centred on girl-child alone, rather clamoured for balanced training for both the girl and boy-child to ensure even society.

Mrs. Awosemusi said the state has within past one year filed over sixty cases of sexual violence against girls in the high court and family court.

Chairman, Advisory Council of Hope for Second Chance Foundation (HOSEC),Mr. Olajide Adesina, called for more support from government, religious, community leaders and all others relevant stakeholders to make our society better and worth living.

Mosope Kehinde

pub-5160901092443552

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *