Foundation sensitises IDP pupils on Gender Based Violence

OluwinKids Foundation, has sensitised children at the new Kuchigoro Internally Displaced persons (IDPs) camp on Gender Based Violence (GBV), as well as donated stationery to their school. Mr Olufemi Winfunke, Executive Director of the foundation made this known during its outreach at the camp in Abuja.

Winfunke said the Joyful Kids Foundation, a sister organisation of Olwin decided to build the capacity of the children on GBV to empower them against abuses and other vices . He said: “The main goal of the intervention is to enlighten the children and also support of the IDP camp.
“We are here to pass valuable information on GBV, body parts protection, things that they should know so that they are not taken advantage of.
“We are also here to support the teachers with stationery such as text books ,pencils ,books and others because they are lacking a lot of support in terms of materials needed for the educational process.
“We will also be helping them with the construction of new classrooms as well as the completion of the classrooms they have.
“This is because most of them don’t have windows, so when it’s raining, water pours into and disturbs their class.
“So, we picked this place to lend our support to because one, it is an IDP camp , two, because our foundation is focused mainly on children and this school here is for children from nursery to primary six.

Winfunke said the nature of the school which was estaished by the community made it more imperative for the foundation to intervene and support the school.
“It is a very touching story and the government needs to come and set up schools, medical facilities and other amenities.
“It should also integrate these people back into the system to take them to their communities because as of now, it seems that they are just forgotten, ” he added.

Winfunke said the foundation also carry out other interventions in the area of fertility management where it helps to empower people facing infertility challenges. He said they include fibroid and conception, among others, and equip the people with the requisite knowledge on how to come out of it.

Mr Mayowa Elebiyo, Public Relations Manager,Teen County Africa, a partner of Olwin foundation, said that it was important to teach children on GBV. According to him, it is critical to catch the kids young to save them from being victims and suffering its repercussion in the future. He said: “We are community service experts and we took it upon ourselves to reach out to the IDP camp today.
“One of our objectives is to ensure that we build the capacity of these young ones about sexual abuse and other vices happening around them.
“So, one of the modules I took them was about sexual abuse, we reoriented them on how to know when they are being touched wrongly and who to report to.
“The children from ages five to seven were taught using fun ways to pass the information and they understood it.”

Mr Luka Ayedoo,Headmaster of Sharing Prosperity School and Secretary of the camp commended the NGO for the invaluable gesture . He added: “We established the school ourselves to make sure our children have access to education and the teachers run the school on vulunterily, because there is no money to pay salaries since there is no much support .
“Before, some NGOs helped us but it was not enough, so, I am pleading with more organisations and individuals to support us so the children can be in school.
“We started with 85 pupils but now we have close to 300. These children would have been on the streets rooming about but now they are in school.”

Ayedoo called on the government to fight illiteracy by empowering more children to be in school, adding, “thereby prevent them being used as willing tools for social vices and terrorism.”

NAN/S.S