No fewer than 9,000 girls on Wednesday, received solar transistor radio from Norwegian government and United Nations Population Fund to access sexual, reproductive health and rights services for women and adolescent girls in Gombe.
According to the speaker, Gombe state House of Assembly, Ibrahim Abubakar, this initiative will help boost the confidence of young girls, adding that it will increase learning.
Abubakar disclosed this at the distribution exercise in Model primary school Deba, Gombe state, where girls from the pilot Local government areas; Yalmatu Deba, Funakaye, Kaltungo received their sets.
“We hope that the children will benefit from the distribution of these transistor radio as well as improve availability of quality Sexual and Reproductive Health services including Family Planning for adolescent girls and women of reproductive age; increase access to sexual reproductive health information and life skills for adolescent girls in selected LGAs in Gombe State.”
According to the commissioner for Education Habu Dahiru, the programme will boost literacy and numeracy of Gombe girls.
He said, “Safe space programme is important to develop a girl child into womanhood and in addition into literacy and numeracy. We will continue to support this course to end malnutrition, gender violence, and promote social economic, health well being of our people.
“However, content and monitoring of programming is key in this part of the country. We must monitor the content of the programme to ensure it is not in riot with our social and cultural norms. We appreciate the cohort given to the 9,000 girls and the capacity building of our teachers as well as the mentors.
“The mentors have increased the sense of worth and confidence of our learners, we promise good usage of the product.”
Also Speaking, State Team Lead Centre for Girls’ Education Faith Bawa said the safe space programme has built the agency of girls.
“Through the episodes that have been recorded and some of the sessions that have been taught during the normal safe space before the schools were locked down will enable these girls know how to negotiate, communicate, decision making skills the students are very much interested in the programme and they will follow the radio programmes,” she said.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said this intiative will help end child marriage, boost literacy and encourage numeracy among teenage girls adding that it cost the organization 24,000,000 Norwegian krone estimated at 975,557,862.00 Nigerian Naira.
The statement partly states, “Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, signed for implementation of a three year project tilted, “integrated approach to empowering adolescent girls and women in gombe and akwa ibom states through access to sexual reproductive health and rights”,at a cost of NOK 24,000,000.
“This distribution of Solar Radio sets to 9000 Adolescent Girls in Gombe state, is aimed at ensuring continuous learning and education of adolescent girls enrolled in Safe Spaces programme during the COVID-19 pandemic. The nationwide closure of schools since March 19th 2020 by the Federal and States Ministries of Education, to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19, has affected the education as well as learning activities delivered through school-based safe spaces to the adolescent girls enrolled in the project.
“UNFPA’s strategy to engage adolescent girls virtually via radio broadcasted learning sessions, is designed to build their literacy and numeracy skills as well as critical life skills including reproductive health and family life education. The distributed radio sets would enable the girls have access to the radio messages, however, the coverage is state wide. These interventions serve to ensure girls are retained in school. Studies have shown that adolescent girls who receive an education are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy, productive lives. They earn higher incomes, participate in decisions that affect them, and build better futures for themselves and their families.”
