Expert identifies communication, survival skills for rape prevention

AMental Health Expert, Dr Maji Peterx, has identified communication, instilling self-esteem and survival skills on children to prevent any form of Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV).

Peterx, who is also the Country Director, Equal Access International, made this known on the sideline of a three-day training under Palladium’s Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project, sponsored by USAID in Abuja.

According to him, SGBV and Child Early Forced Marriage (CEFM) are an endemic ravaging the nation, hence the need to sensitise the public on its negative impacts in the psyche and societal structure.

He advised parents, guardians and other stakeholders to create a platform for fruitful conversation, watch out for any traces of abuses and instill street survival skills in children to prevent them falling violence.

“We should build our children’s self esteem. We should win the confidence of our children. We should create a platform for sincere communication with our children, so that they can tell us what their problem is.

“We should stop judging them and we should not create our own standard for our children to live up to because we live in different worlds.

“And most importantly, we should be able to teach our children street sense life skills and survival skills,’’ he said.

According to him, children or other survivors of SGBV find it difficult to confide in another person because of stigmatisation, blame attitude and shutting them down, when they try to communicate on their plights.

“Like when a child refuses to go to school or a drop in their academic performance, or preference for isolation. Parents should try to find out reasons and not term that person lazy or unserious.

“When we do that, we are exposing the child and he realises that he can’t speak to us with his personnel issues.

“And there are times when a child is being victimised or raped, or a child is being abused or molested and the questions we asked shows as if we are trying to blame them for causing it.

“These tend to shut down the victims, and shutting them off from making conversations about what is affecting them, thereby making them more vulnerable to such abuses,’’ he said.

On reducing rape and other SGBV, Maji said shaming the perpetrator by making them walk around their communities, where people identified and fingers pointed at them, as well as including them in the Sexual Offender Register would curb the trend.

The Mental health expert also called on the government and critical stakeholders to implement policies and programmes that would protect the rights of children, women and People with Disabilities (PWDs),

He said that policies like the child Rights Act, Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act, Disability law, among others, if fully implemented would reduce all forms of violence against vulnerable persons. NAN

NIMASA, FEMA donate educational items to schools

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in collaboration with the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have donated learning materials to Primary Schools in the Territory, to improve the teaching and learning experience.

It was gathered that among the learning materials donated include Computers, UPS, printers, books, and some other stationaries.

A statement from Head, FEMA’s Public Affairs, Nkechi Isa, explained that the donation, which is part of the corporate social responsibility of NIMASA, also emphasized the need to educate children in their early years, using ideal learning and instructional materials, which have been identified as key to raising intellectually sound adults.

It added that the Director, Special Duties, External Relations and Technical Cooperation, NIMASA, Isichei Osamgbi stated this during a symbolic donation of the learning materials to Model Primary School Kubwa 3, Bwari Area Council, Abuja.

Osamgbi said that it was important for his team at NIMASA to support the efforts made by teachers in Primary Schools by providing materials to make teaching easy and learning even easier for the pupils.

He said that NIMASA collaborates with the government ‘by contributing our quota by identifying people who have these needs like the Internally Displaced People’s Camp among others’.

Osamgbi added that more schools across the Territory identified by FEMA, who need the support will receive the educational materials.

Also speaking, the Director, Department of Relief and Rehabilitation, FEMA, Engr. Mohammed Abdulrahman revealed that NIMASA provided the items but FEMA identified the Schools that have peculiar needs of the materials provided will receive them.

Abdulrahman also assured that all schools that have been identified would receive their packages; adding that FEMA is open to collaborating with good-spirited individuals as well as organizations who wish to reach out to the less privileged in communities across the FCT.

The Head Teacher, Model Primary School Kubwa 3, Ladi Matthew, expressed gratitude to NIMASA and FEMA for choosing to supply the materials to the School, noting that the children will be impacted greatly.

Similarly, the Head Teacher LEA Primary School Galadima, Gwarinpa, Agaja Agnes, who also received the materials said that the visit was timely, as the pupils needed the materials to aid their learning, promising that the supplies will be maximized and supervised.

Not left out, a primary six Pupil of Model primary school Kubwa 3, Oloruntobi Aaron, expressed excitement, saying, that they can now print the necessary things for their use within the school.