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By Madu Obi
The Nigerian Girl Guides Association (NGGA) says it would partner the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, to curb the increasing cases of rape, child trafficking and domestic violence against girls and women in the country.
The NGGA National Commissioner in charge of training, Dr Helen Obi, who spoke in Awka as part of activities to mark the association's 100 years anniversary in the state, reminded leaders that the development of the girl child is key to holistic development.
Obi said: “The girl child is still faced with the problem of rape, child marriage, domestic violence, child labour, child trafficking, and other socio-cultural norms, which have moved us to seek partnership with UNICEF to end the menace.
"The development of the girl child occupies the central point in global discourse seeing the unlimited level of capacity a girl can explore given the opportunity.
"Girl guide is one important way girls and young women are given great opportunities to develop their potentials for the benefit of adding value to the society."
Describing the association as the largest all-female, international and voluntary organization in Nigeria, Obi said its main objective is to discover every girl's fullest potential that would enable her become a responsible citizen.
"NGGA empowers girls as young as 5 years and young women to speak out and take action to influence others through leadership development, community action, peer education and advocacy to bring about positive change in their communities.
"We provide informal education programmes to older women in partnership with government ministries, agencies and departments; also provide entrepreneurial skill development opportunities.
"Our programmes reach out to girls and young women in rural hard-to-reach communities, girls with special needs, Internally Displaced Persons and girls in refugee camps.
She added: "We have a robust curriculum comprising diverse activities and part of it is to train about 300 girls and women from the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones on various skills to mark the centenary celebration in Anambra.
"The training will take place at Umudioka, in Dunukofia local government area of the state from August 23 to August 27, 2023.
“The participants are expected from all the states of the South-East and South-South geo-political zones, and they will camp at St. Kizito Umudioka, Dunukofia area, where they will be trained on 16 different activities", adding, "the vision of the association is to position the girl child towards tackling challenges in society.
“We have vision 2032, and our aim is to seek opportunities for our girls to achieve their potential in life."
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