After many weeks of orientation, the Lagos State Government’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) has officially welcomed 210 pupils from Education District V into the Queen’s and King’s Club.
The DSVA Executive Secretary, Mrs. TitiLola Vivour-Adeniyi, said that the students will represent the cause of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) during the induction ceremony on Monday at Agboju.
In order to combat the threat of the state’s high frequency of SGBV, according to Vivour-Adeniyi, awareness must be raised.
According to her, the state government-established referral channel must be used to hold offenders accountable.
According to Vivour-Adeniyi, the effort attempted to build a lasting social framework in educational institutions that would aid in dispelling socio-cultural myths.
According to the executive secretary, it will encourage empowered femininity and affect behavioural and mental changes in young girls in Lagos State.
A group of prepared young girls and boys in schools who would act as peer educators and promoters of positive masculinity and femininity would also be formed as a result of the effort.
She said that the group would provide both boys and girls with more information about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and gender-based violence.
She claims that by doing so, they will be able to counter prevalent practises that support gender disparities as well as common misconceptions regarding violence.
“While the agency seeks to promote positive SRH behaviour, the initiative would also assist in the generation of data on the perception of girls and boys regarding Gender Based Violence (GBV) and SRH.
“Empowering and inaugurating the students into the King’s Club and Queen’s Club Initiative was expedient, as children are amongst the statistics of victims, preys to peodophiles and all forms of abuse,” she said.
The purpose, according to Judith Osinaike, one of the facilitators, was to develop a lasting social structure throughout the state’s educational institutions.
The founder of the University Royalty Empowerment Foundation, Osinaike, exhorted the students to keep pushing for excellence, support a world free of all forms of SGBV, and see themselves as role models and agents of change in society.
The children from Education District 5 were later inducted into the club after reciting the vow of allegiance, and they were given certificates and identity cards to prove it.
