Women
GREEN Girl Company, the organisers of Miss Nigeria Pageant, has urged young girls to report any form of gender-based violence and sexual harassment against them to government approved authorities for sanctions.
Dr May Ikeora, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, gave the advice at a news conference on Friday in Lagos to herald the annual International Day of the Girl Child scheduled for Oct. 11.
Ikeora said that the company and the current Miss Nigeria, Chidinma Aaron, would organise a summit on Oct. 11 to sensitise young girls against such violence.
According to her, the summit tagged: “Raising Girls Summit” will address issues of health, confidence and sexual harassment and how young girls can overcome it.
She said that over 60 schools had indicated interests in the summit, including young girls from the rural areas of the state that would be transported to the summit venue free of charge.
She said that the summit would be organised annually to influence young girls to think positively and encourage them toward breaking the jinx that certain professions were meant for men.
“There are young girls who were good in science subjects in their secondary school days but ended up deviating at the university levels.
“We need to break the disconnection and encourage them to become engineers and technicians,” she said.
Also speaking, the 42nd Miss Nigeria, Chidinma Aaron, urged young girls to be proud and be self-reliant.
Aron said that she was happy that the girl-child project she inherited from her predecessors-in-office had advanced into a summit to reach out to the average Nigerian child.
“I started this project at the beginning of my reign with visits to schools, teaching and creating awareness on the pride and protection of the girl child.
“I will be glad to moderate along with past queens the issues affecting the girl child; to have personal contacts with young girls, to encourage them to tell us their experiences.
” Also, to discover those ones that had experienced sexual harassment in the past,” she said.
She said that she hoped that at the end of the summit, they would be able to discover outstanding young girls, who could defend their gender, propound theories and excel in their academics.
According to the organisers, the First Lady of the country, Mrs Aisha Buhari, is expected to be the special guest at the occasion. (NAN)
– Oct. 4, 2019 @ 18:05 GMT |
Tags: Miss Nigeria: Organiser urges girls to report gender-based violence
