Tag Archives: Girl ChIld

Educate the girl child, stop building mosques – Sarkin Kano

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The emir of Kano Mallam Muhammad Sanusi II has called out wealthy northerners to stop building mosques and to stop early marriage of the girl child and start educating female children, since majority of these girls can barely read and write.

He made the call on Thursday in his keynote address at the 3rd international conference on Islamic Banking and Finance, organised by the International Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance, Bayero University, Kano.

“I’m just tired of people coming to me to say I want to build a new mosque. You know, we keep building mosques and our daughters are illiterates.

“So, my appeal is that if you really want to help Kano, don’t come to me with a request to build a N300m mosque because I have enough mosques everywhere. And if I don’t have a mosque, I’ll build it myself. If you really want to help, go and educate a girl child in the village.”

According to him, over 50 per cent of girls between the age bracket of 18 and 20 were given out in marriage in this part of the country.

He added that the worrisome dimension of it was that 75 per cent of them could neither read nor write.

Calling for a review of laws to prevent early marriage and encourage girl-child education, he said,

“It is not a mere coincidence that this is where you have the highest levels of illiteracy, early marriage, divorce and the highest levels of domestic violence…

“People need to understand that the law has to change. If you look at the medical data on maternal health, girls who get pregnant below the age of 15 are five times as likely to die as girls who get pregnant at the age of 20. Those who get pregnant under 18 are twice as likely to die as those who get pregnant at the age of 20. So, it is important that we look at this issue of early marriage.” PUNCH reports.

Child marriage hinders girl child development – NGO

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The Centre for Learning and Educational Development Advocacy Africa (CLEDA-Africa), an NGO, has said that child marriage is one of the major hindrances to girl child development in the country.

Mr Daniels Akpan, its Executive Director, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Tuesday that globally, one in seven adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 are currently married.

“This is even worst in developing countries where one in three girls are married off before they turn 18 and more than 20,000 girls under the age of 18 give birth daily.

“This increases the world population by seven million annually,’’ he said.

Akpan also said that out of the more than seven billion population of the world, 1.1 billion are girls with talents, creativity and full of abilities.

However, he pointed out that culture, religion, tradition, poverty and illiteracy, among other factors, had hindered and limited the full development of the girl child.

As the world celebrates this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, the director called on relevant stakeholders and the global community to strengthen and support girl child progress in Kaduna State and the nation.

According to him, girls are engine of national development and stress the need to promote girl child education in preparing them for a better future.

“This is the best way to stand up for girls’ progress everywhere,’’ Akpan said.

He disclosed that CLEDA Africa had in September trained 150 secondary school girls in Pampaida and Saulawa communities of Ikara Local Government Areas of Kaduna State on vocational skills.

He said that the gesture was to empower the girls financially as part of efforts to encourage them to remain in school.

Akpan called on the Federal and Kaduna State Governments to partner with CLEDA Africa to reach out to young girls and empower them with education and basic skills to live a productive life.

#IDG2016: AYAHAY Foundation Providing Education To Girls And Children Displaced By Boko Haram

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In line with the theme of this year’s International day for Girl child, “Girls Progress = Goal Progress”,
at AYAHAY Foundation, educating the girl child has been our priority. To celebrate this day however, AYAHAY Foundation announce the establishment of education centers in Abuja and Adamawa, educating internally displaced persons, and the foundation hopes to establish 8 more centres in a bid to educate more girls especially from Northern Nigeria.
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As the world marks the International day for the Girl Child, “we are proud to also state that empowering girls through our scholarship programs over the years has been rewarding, the girls opportuned to have been part of the scheme from Kebbi, Adamawa, Yobe, Sokoto and Borno have continued to perform creditably well” , says Mrs Maryam Augie Abdulmumin, founder of the foundation.

Mrs Augie-Abdulmumin also announce that AYAHAY Foundation, through its Empowerment through Education program, has constructed Early Childhood Education Centers (ECEC) in FCT Abuja and Malkohi, Adamawa State to educate vulnerable kids displaced by Boko Haram.

“For us it is about how much we can do for the 10 million plus out of school children in Northern Nigeria, add that number to those displaced, we had to get them in school even as they’re in the various IDP camps. We have a target of 500 women and 500 children before the end of year.” says Maryam Augie Jibrin, Executive Director of the Foundation.

Mrs Jibrin stated, “The Centres offer the space, materials, and activities organized to promote active exploration and learning for children between the ages of 3-6, and also psychosocial therapy for the kids.

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The Education program is under the AYAHAY Foundation’s Gift Basket Initiative, which was started in 2014 with the sole purpose of providing relief materials to the men, women and children who have become internally displaced as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in North-Eastern Nigeria.

Hajara Tafida-Isa, Program officer of the Foundation says “we know that providing relief materials is a short-term solution to a long term problem. This led to the birth of our Empowerment through Education Program.”
 

“Statistically, it can be seen that between 2014-2016, there was 89% increase in the number of IDPs, also 95% increase in the number of IDPs that were out of school. Similarly, 90% of schools were destroyed in the affected areas.” Ms Tafida – Isa Maintained.

“The Early Childhood Education Centers are 2 out of 10 centers that the Foundation plans to set up in IDP camps and host communities in Northern Nigeria.” Program officer of the Foundation added. “We have 92% of IDPs living in host communities, but only 8% in IDP camp.”
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Ms. Hajara further explained with details that the Abuja Center is at the Durumi IDP Camp which has a population of two thousand, seven hundred and seventy-four (2774).

“There are currently 50 children at the Abuja center and we are targeting 500 children in all the 10 centers. The center in Adamawa State is located at Malkohi, a community with a population of about eight thousand (8000). The center will cater to the educational needs of the IDP and the host community.” She maintained.

To make it conducive, the centers are built using mud blocks, thatch and have bamboo in the walls for ventilation. The items according to the facility manager, Mr Onyedikachi Izuegbu. “Will help keep the class cool even in the hottest days. “Handmade light bulbs made of chlorine and water which reflect the rays of the sun into the classroom were inserted through the roof because of the lack of electricity.”
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“We have also initiated a second branch of the program which is the Adult Learning Program” He added.
“To ensure that our pupils get the right amount of help with their schoolwork while at home, their mothers have also been enrolled into our adult literacy classes where they will learn literacy and numeracy. All our teachers and instructors are Internally Displaced Persons.” He concluded.

AYAHAY Foundation in its efforts as part of its nationwide education outreach program in the country set up a scholarship program for bright children from Northern Nigeria. There are currently 12 students in the program who attend well-recognised schools in Northern Nigeria such as El-Amin International School, Minna, Niger State.
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AYAHAY Foundation was established after two of Ms Augie’s close friends, Fatima and Aisha Yahaya, died in a car accident (AYAHAY is Yahaya spelled backwards.) The foundation, which is now made up of Maryam and about 20 other young individuals in different fields, has since 2013 been helping women and children especially, by equipping them with relevant entrepreneurial skills and providing them with relief materials.

AYAHAY Foundation before now, provided relief materials for the three northeastern states, Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, which have for a very long time been afflicted by attacks from terrorist group, Boko Haram.

Political Will; Key to Raising the Bar For the Wellbeing of Women and the Girl Child in Africa – Lanre Olagunju

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During the 4th Women Deliver Conference which recently took place in Copenhagen, the largest gathering on girls and women’s health and rights, for more than a decade, Pathfinder International, in conjunction with Hacey Health Initiative hosted West Africans to an engaging gathering during the West Africa Regional Caucus meeting to further relate the Sustainable Development Goals to women and the girl child.

The West Africa Regional Caucus meeting was aimed at bringing distinguished advocates from West Africa together to share perspectives on issues limiting the advancement of health and productivity of women and girls across West Africa, so as to further strengthen collaboration among advocates and partners.

Mrs. Toyin Saraki, founder of Wellbeing Foundation, while delivering her address at the Caucus meeting, emphasised on the need for deeper intervention on issues that affect the welbeing of mothers and babies across Nigeria. She said that it’s a lot cheaper to adequately cater for an expectant mother than spend about N150, 000 on a coffin, which is about the cheapest coffin in Nigeria. Mrs. Saraki pushed her argument further by pointing out that the drugs required during pregnancy— from conception; including the cost of the four required antenatal visits and one ultrasound scan, goes for about N50,000. She made it known that in case of a Caesarean section, the total cost can’t be more than N120,000, whereas, the cheapest coffin goes for N150,00.

Toyin Saraki further made a case for women and newborns in her action-provoking address, charging government officials present and other stakeholders to pay attention to every pregnant woman and invest in every single pregnancy. She further implored her distinguished audience at the West Africa regional caucus meeting at Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen that asking for increased attention for the wellbeing of women and newborns isn’t asking for too much because such investments yield results by keeping women and newborns alive.

Focusing on the need for improved use of data to increase accountability on issues relating to women and the girl child, Mrs. Saraki urged the Nigerian government to wake up to its responsibility of keeping reliable data and not only keep records of births and deaths registration, saying that all women must count beyond point of birth and death. She also pointed out that if the Nigerian government can achieve the Bank Verification Number registration across the nation, keeping record to better advance the health of women and newborns is achievable. In her words, “There are 176 million of us, and our women are still the largest contributors to maternal deaths in the world, and then all we want to do is count how many children are born and how many children are dying”. Toyin Saraki also added that “I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a part of that game, because that is not a game changer. That is just an accounting clerk of death.”

The Commissioner for health in Ondo State, Dr. Adeyanju, while responding to interview questions on cost implication of putting health facilities and intervention programs to aid maternal health said “initially the investment into maternal care for women and the newborns will seem expensive, but as the project advances and the awareness increases, expectant mothers begin to come to hospital early, this drops the cost of care, because when we started in Ondo State, the cost of healthcare used to be N6,500 per pregnant woman, now it has dropped to about N4,500 because more women are becoming better informed and they come to make use of health facility pretty early. So with that, we are able to prevent more complications, and you know prevention is a far better approach when it comes to health.”

Dr. Dayo Adeyanju further explained that the motivation for government should be in line with seeing woman beyond figures, but as flesh and blood, he reiterated that “seeing every woman as a living entity with flesh and blood has been the motivation for us in Ondo State. We don’t see women as mere figures, and this has greatly been translated into policies; with top notch birth intervention programs like the Abiye and Agbebiye  Save Mother Intervention program, a template for mandatory reporting of all maternal deaths  which has helped to drastically reduce maternal mortality, crashing the maternal mortality figure in the state from 745/100, 000 live births to 106/100,000”, he said.

***Lanre Olagunju is a maternal and newborn advocate. @Lanre_Olagunju on Twitter.