The celebration, held at Kofar Hausa Primary School in the Keffi Local Government area on Monday, 14-10-2024, was attended by students from various secondary schools across the local government.
Mr. Steve Aborisade, AHF Nigeria’s Advocacy and Marketing Manager, initiated the celebration by announcing that the foundation had brought together out-of-school girls from four communities in and around Keffi to educate and sensitize them on the day’s significance.
“The essence is to appreciate the fact that our girls matter to us and we know that culturally in our society, women generally are disproportionate impact than our culture put our girls and women to because they don’t have the same right that men have in our society that is a big issue”, he said.
He added that, in many homes, the parents prefer the male child to go to school than the female, they always push the girls to marriage by force and you can see the implications of this. And again, new infection of HIV AIDS is among the girls, they have been at the receiving end in the society which is really bad.
According to Mr. Steve, the programme was organized to give the young girls a brighter future and to give them a sense of belongings, maintaining that AHF will engage the community leaders on the need to prioritize girl child education.
Ibrahim Bichi, is the state clinical coordinator with Nasarawa S.S foundation and Safiya Ibrahim from NACA, said 11 October has been a key global moment to celebrate the power of girls and highlight the barriers they face since the United Nations adopted it as International Day of the Girl.
While Rahamat Mohammed, a representative of Nasarawa State ministry of women affairs and social development, disclosed that the ministry has consistently monitored parents who refused to sponsored their female children to acquired knowledge.
The event featured the awareness on how Young girls can use sanitary pad and the free distribution of the sanitary pad courtesy AHF.
