By Peter Amine
The Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), a World Bank funded project, is developing a strategic framework to create safe space for adolescent girls to learn in Plateau schools.
AGILE stakeholders came together at a two-day inception/co-creation workshop in Jos on Wednesday and Thursday to brainstorm and develop the strategies.
AGILE Director, Aisha Dadi, said the project was all about making the whole school system in a holistic way to be safe and good for girls to learn.
Dadi said that the workshop was also to help the stakeholders understand drivers and enablers associated with life skill intervention, identify challenges facing adolescent girls and proffer solutions to the challenges.
“We’re creating safe space for adolescent girls to men which comprises of life building skills, gender base violence prevention, climate change, and health and nutrition.
“We have some components that include building of new schools and we have another component that is into renovation of schools.
“We have another one that is providing Water and Sanitation (WASH); they provide toilets by building new toilets and renovating old ones.
“They also drill boreholes in schools to make the place convenient for girls to learn,” she explained.
The director stated that the stakehokders were bringing out all the challenges that young girls or adolescent girls are faced with.
According to her, when they bring out the challenges together, they will look at the solutions in a very holistic way that will be sustainable for them to implement.
AGILE acting Project Coordinator in Plateau, Mr Thomas Dachung, said that the girls were imbued with life skills, ranging from self esteem to personal hygiene so that they will be able to take care of themselves in terms of hygiene.
Dachung said that because adolescent girls have become vulnerable in Nigeria today, they are faced with a lot of challenges.
“So the essence of this training is to create that awareness so that they will not be victims of sexual exploitation and gender based violence.
“The essence of this programme is also to help them to create awareness in terms of the global warming and how to protect the environment, by improving on their own behavior.
“They should be able to discharge their sanitary pads properly in order not to pollute the environment. This is imperative because if the environment is green, it will be safe for everybody to live in,” he stated.
Permanent Secretary, Plateau State Ministry of Education, Mr John Istifanus, said that the ministry was providing the necessary support and personnel for the AGILE project to succeed.
Istifanus said that the ministry was facilitating the coordination of all it required to implement identified policies of AGILE project for the good Plateau girl child. (NAN)
