The Center for Comprehensive Promotion of Reproductive Health (CPRH), has trained 30 adolescent girls on female genital mutilation (FGM) awareness creation and abandonment using digital technology.
The three days training which held from June 13 to 15, 2024 at Mutan CBT center, Moniya Ibadan was supported by the United Nations Population Fund in collaboration with the Oyo State Government.
The 30 girls were selected from private, public and out of school (community) in the local government area.
One of the facilitators, John Oluwafemi, a digital trainer and information scientist, said the girls were being trained to understand their roles in ending FGM with the vision of turning them to champions who can use digital platform to preach against FGM practice in the society.
“Their roles would be so immense because this is their world and they have that voice, many of them are not new to social media, so we trained them to be able to amplify that voice and reach out to many people.
“We introduced them to social media packages; microsoft office packages, under which we have power point and excel. We also introduced them to outlook, something they can use to manage their emails. Understanding operating system (SO), we showed them markwell, server and many more.
“We taught them how to do simple graphic design using Canva and how to do simple designs to push their messages on social media. Also, they were trained on how to safeguard themselves while using all social media platforms,” he added.
Another resource person, a gender-based violence advocate, from APIN Public Health Initiative, Ayanlola Oluwanife said some of the adolescent girls have been hearing about FGM but do not really understand what it was about, adding that their knowledge about it would be of great help in spreading the gospel of it to their parents, neighbors and people around.
Speaking on behalf of CPRH, the monitoring and evaluation officer Yelotan Emmanuel, stated that the motive behind the program is to create awareness towards abandonment of FGM in Oyo state and Nigeria at large.
“Emmanuel said: The reason we organised this program is to train adolescent girls for the creation of awareness and sensitising their peer group, communities and everybody on the society. Aside this, the girls were trained on digital skills to help in reaching out to people with on different social media platforms.”
On the method used in selecting the school girls, Emmanuel noted that the selection was done through the Ministry of Education, adding that, “the selection wasn’t done from our own office, it was done by the Ministry of Education in Oyo State. We wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, I think the letter was stepped down to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry and to the director of schools”
The monitoring and evaluation officer appreciated the Director of CPRH, Prof. Oladosun Ojengbende for allowing and giving the staff a platform to carry out such activities, adding that “he is always at the forefront for anything that concerns girls and women.”
Jayeola Roda, one of the out of school adolescents that participated said she was informed by the health coordinator in her local government area, adding that “I have learnt about FGM and the laws surrounding it, I have also been trained on how to improve my technology skills as well as making wise use of the internet. And though I have some idea about FGM before, it was not this much.”
The 30 adolescent girls received certificates of participation, while three best performing girls were presented with brand-new laptops.
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