The Lagos State Government’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), inducted 200 students from Education District 1 as ambassadors against sexual and gender-based violence on Thursday.
At the ceremony of induction at Iyana Ipaja, Mrs. Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), spoke to the 200 ambassadors and asked them to promote a policy of zero tolerance for sexual and gender-based violence.
The 200 students from the 20 schools in Education District 1 who were represented by Mr. Damilare Adewusi, Head, Community Engagement, DSVA, claimed that the Kings and Queens Clubs were established to assist in fighting SGBV.
She also said that the high rate of SGBV in the state meant that the public needed to be taught more about the problem.
She claims that the Kings and Queens Club programme intends to establish a lasting social structure in educational institutions that would aid in dispelling socio-cultural myths.
Young girls in Lagos State would modify their behaviour and attitudes, according to her, and it would encourage empowered femininity.
According to Viviour-Adeniyi, the programme would also aid in the formation of a group of trained young girls and boys who would act as peer educators and promoters of good femininity and masculinity in schools.
She said that by joining the club, both boys and girls will gain a better understanding of sexual and reproductive health as well as gender-based violence.
”We are inducting 200 students today, 100 boys and 100 girls from across 20 different schools in Educational District 1.
”I want you to know that as we have trained you, as we have impacted the knowledge into you, it is important that you go back to your schools and be good ambassadors of the club,” the Executive Secretary said.
The issue of SGBV, according to Mr. Oluwatobi Ikudaisi, the Kings Club facilitator, is regrettable and disturbing not just in Nigeria but also internationally.
”So it called for us to bring up this initiative to help with shaping and then curb these social ills that are happening in Lagos,” Ikudaisi said.
Ayomipo Adesiyun, the Queens Club facilitator, pushed the students to share the information they had learned with other students over the six weeks of training.
”Spread the good news that things need to change in our society if we want to live in a better society altogether,” Adesiyun said.
Daniella Sunday from Vetland Senior Grammar School, one of the pupils, claimed that they had been given more information on reproductive health.
They were not to make a distinction between sexual assault and harassment, according to Sunday, and they would be permitted to speak out against such violence.
David Adeniyi, a different student from Surulere Senior Secondary School, declared that he would spread the information to other pupils at my school.
We have been instructed to uphold good masculinity, always respect the will of the feminine gender, and employ our might to defend the ladies rather than inflict harm, Adeniyi stated.
