By Ojo Oluwafemi
The Wife of the Ondo State Governor, Mrs Betty Akeredolu has facilitated a training workshop for 50 counselors in public secondary schools on effective handling of Sexual, Gender Based Violence and related cases across the state.
Mrs Akeredolu made this known on Thursday at the training workshop organised for Counselors in public secondary schools and launch of the Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Yellow Card in Oke-Agbe in Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo state.
The governor's wife, represented by Mr. Austin Otabor, the Coordinator, Betty Anyawu Akeredolu Foundation, (BAAF) said the objective of the training is to understand ethical issues related to GBV and brings out qualities of a good councelor, possible challenges and how to address them.
She said that the training would enable school Councelors to identify early warning signs of abuse among school children and how to report GBV cases promptly.
She explained that her NGO (BAAF) works towards incorporating yellow card initiative into school GBV prevention and response effort to develop a plan for the next step to build prevention.
She decried the spate at which children in public schools die in silent over Sexual Gender Based Violence related cases without speaking out and thereby causing more hardship for them.
According to her, we are building the capacity of the counselors to identify early warning of abuse among school children and to retain them on every component of sexual based violence related cases.
"More than 250,000 yellow cards will be distributed to the young girls, at 500 per school, the yellow card will bring out the boldness in them when such cases arise.
"We will establish 50 anti-gender base violence clubs in public secondary schools across the state as a means of effective dissemination of relevant information on sexual, gender based violence among the students.
"We are using counselors in schools as medium for dissemination of the yellow card and to pass more awareness to the young girls.
"We want to stop that idea of counselors hearing about cases and sweeping it under the carpet, we are building their knowledge and setting them on track,"She said.
The governor's wife said the yellow card would also serve as an awareness card and to enable the children to report promptly by calling the toll free lines in the card or approach the school Counselors who will take the matter up for appropriate action.
A participant, Mr Ominawa Thomas from Ajuta Comprehensive High School, Ogbagi Akoko in Akoko North West Local Government Area of the state, lauded the governor's wife for initiative and promise to fight against any sexual gender base violence and related cases among his students.
The State Chairperson of the Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), Mrs Bola Ogundadegbe, said the training would afford the counselors the opportunity to seek for early warning sign before GBV occurs in schools and to prevent it.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the program was organized by Betty Anyanwu Akeredolu Foundation (BAAF) a Non Governmental Organization and sponsored by the lawmaker representing Akoko North East/West, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
NAN also reports that stakeholders, who were present at the workshop include representative from the State Ministry of Education, Women Affairs, and Justice and will be replicated in the 18 Local Government Areas. (NAN)
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