LASG charges students to speak up against violence
By Oluwatope Lawanson
The Lagos State Government on Wednesday charged students to speak up against domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
The Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr Mobolaji Ogunlende, gave the charge during the induction of 201 students from Education District six into the Kings and Queens Club in Lagos.
The induction was organised by the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA).
The 201 students were inducted into the club after weeks of orientation to stand against all forms of sexual and gender-based violence.
Ogunlende said the purpose of the induction into the club was to help the young boys and girls to imbibe the act of discipline in the fight to curb such violence in Lagos State.
He urged them to speak out and report any case of sexual violence in their community, to rid the state off the menace.
The commissioner said the initiative was in line with the T.H.E.M.E.S+ Agenda of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in the area of youth engagement and social inclusion.
Also speaking, Princess Omolara Oyekan-Olumegbon, the lawmaker representing Lagos Island Constituency 1, said that the programme aimed at reiterating the state government’s zero tolerance for all forms of sexual and gender-based violence.
Oyekan-Olumegbon said having such club would help to address the grappling issues of violence that individuals and communities were faced with.
She urged the students to continue to strive for excellence and champion a world free of all forms of sexual and gender-based violence.
Oyekan-Olumegbon also urged the inductees to see themselves as ambassadors and change agents in the society.
Earlier in her welcome address, the Executive Secretary, DSVA, Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, said the initiative was to create a sustainable social structure in educational institutions that would help debunk socio-cultural misconceptions.
Vivour-Adeniyi said the club would promote empowered femininity to bring about behavioural and attitudinal change in the minds of young girls in Lagos State.
She added that the initiative would help to constitute an alliance of trained young girls and boys in schools, who would serve as peer educators and advocates of positive femininity and masculinity.
According to her, the club will expose the girls and boys to increased knowledge on sexual and gender-based violence and enable them question dominant norms which promote gender inequities.
She added that it would enable them to challenge myths and misconceptions about violence.
”Empowering and inaugurating the students into the King’s Club and Queen’s Club is expedient, as children are amongst the statistics of victims, prey to peodophiles and all forms of abuse,” she said.
Babayomi Abraham, a student of Euba Senior Secondary School, said he learnt a lot from being in King’s Club, as the club had taught him how not to be harmful in the society, but report any form of sexual and gender-based violence in the society. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
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