CALABAR (CONVERSEER) – Project Alert on Violence Against Women, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) has asserted that sexual violence against minors in the society goes beyond just rape.
The group disclosed this on Tuesday in Calabar during its close-out meeting on sexual violence and young persons in academic institutions in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three-year project, which commenced in 2022, was carried out in five schools, each in Cross River and Akwa Ibom, in collaboration with the Girls Power Initiative (GPI) and with support from the African Women Development Fund (AWDF).
Speaking during the close-out meeting, Ms Nsini Udonta, Senior Programme Officer for Project Alert on Sexual Violence in School, said the project became necessary after their 2012 survey in partnership with other organisations.
“In that survey, we discovered that 77 per cent of victims of sexual violence were children between zero and 17 years, and these children can be found mostly in schools.
Udonta said that for three years, they have been able to raise awareness in Cross River schools through the “Kasa” project by setting up clubs and carrying out other activities that would sustain the fight against sexual violence of minors.
On her part, Mrs Ndodeye Bassey-Obongha, Head of Programmes, GPI, said in the last two years, they had held “Kasa”, which means speak-out sessions with young girls to enable them to speak up against sexual violence in schools.
Bassey-Obongha, however, noted that it was emotional that the project was closing out, adding that the challenge would be its sustainability in Cross River.
According to her, “We have Sexuality Education implementation also known as Family Life and HIV Education in Cross River curriculum since 2003 but the challenge has always been around institutional memory loss.
“Others have been poor in sustainability and no structures in place; so, I call on the commissioners, permanent secretaries and directors to read the handover note by their predecessors, while those currently in office should do proper documentation,” she stated.
Similarly, Dr Gloria Bassey, Chief Consultant of the Project in Cross River, said the project, which was carried out in two tertiary institutions and 3 secondary schools in the state, showed the lack of awareness of students on sexual violence.
She said many of them only knew sexual violence as rape, there were no reporting mechanisms and students who even tried to report only reported to their friends and peers because they did not trust their school counsellors, principals and parents.
She noted that there were also no mechanisms for interventions for students who had suffered sexual violence, so they set up the “Kasa” clubs in the schools with the objectives of educating students on all the forms of sexual violence and reporting mechanisms.
“Courtesy of these clubs, we have had a lot of successes, cases have been handled, students now speak up in their communities, and there have been a lot of behavioural modifications.
“We hope that this effort is sustained by the state government and other partners as the project closes out.”
CSP Philomena Modor, Officer in charge of Gender Unit, Cross River Police Command, said they used to have issues in handling GBV cases, but with the assistance of the “kasa” project and stakeholders in the fight, they have been able to solve them,” she noted.
NAN also reports that those present at the close-out meeting include officials of the Ministries of Education and Justice, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Secondary Education Board (SEB) and other partners like the Basic Rights Council Initiative (BRCI).
