Foundation trains NGOs to tackle GBV, sexual exploitation, harassment in schools

The Roost Foundation on Monday trained Non-Governmental Organisations towards addressing Gender-Based Violence (GBV); Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA); and Sexual Harassment (SH) in schools.

The Executive Chairperson of the Foundation, Dame Julie Okah-Donli said at the opening of the event in Kaduna that the training was under Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA).

Okah-Donli said that the foundation had been selected to coordinate other NGOs on the implementation of issues relating to GBV, SEA and SH in eight out of the 17 BESDA focal states.

She identified the eight states as Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Oyo, Ebonyi and Rivers.

She explained that BESDA, a World Bank-supported programme was designed to reduce out of school children, improve literacy and strengthen accountability in the delivery of basic education in Nigeria.

She said that the training was designed to equip the NGOs from the eight states with the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to achieve the mandate of the programme.

According to her, the objective is to create a safe learning environment for children to learn without being exposed to gender based violence from fellow students and workers in the school community.

“It is also designed to provide a channel with which they can report any case of abuse they experience.

“The project is also to provide the learner and learning-centre staff with fundamental human right knowledge and appropriate channels for reporting cases of abuse and harassment,”Okah-Donli said

She said that sexual and gender-based violence happens everywhere, adding that the survivors were often subjected to all forms of abuse in homes, schools, and worship centres among others.

She stressed the need for school system and environment to be a safe haven for the girl child and an easy way out of sexual and other forms of violence prevalent at home and communities.

“This, therefore, places a huge burden on education managers to make the school environment to be free from all forms of sexual based violence.

“Roost Foundation is committed to eradicating the scourge of human trafficking, irregular migration, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in the country,” she said.

Also speaking, Mr Godwin Morka, Member, Board of Trustees of the Foundation, while providing an overview of the project, said that safe school would significantly improve girl child school enrollment.

Morka added that under the project, teachers and other stakeholders would be trained on GBV, SEA and SH, carry out mapping of service providers and risk assessment and mitigation.

He also said that the project would help to set up Grievance Redress Mechanism at the school level that would involve community actors and other forms of safeguard.

“The trained NGOs will also be expected to carry out sensitisation programmes on GBV in the project implementing states.

“All this is to ensure a better learning environment that is affirmative to the girl child, including the boys,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training was attended by NGOs from Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Zamfara and Kebbi states. (NAN)