by Chris Agbo,
Haly Hope Foundation on Saturday in Abuja organized a sensitization and capacity building programme titled: The right of the girl child with disability in a COVID-19 World.
The project which is the initiative of Haly Hope Foundation geared towards sensitizing and training young girls in Jabi school for the Blind, Abuja on diverse topics in commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD), 2021 with the theme this year as “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID 19 world”.
The Executive Director, Haly Hope Foundation, Apolmida Haruna Tsammani (Ms.), while speaking to TQM said that the choice of the School for the blind Jabi, Abuja is informed by their mandate as a foundation that caters for persons with disabilities especially women and children with disabilities and girls with disabilities; the young girls with disabilities are most times being neglected especially in issues of Gender Based Violence(GBV) and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR). The group is of the opinion that starting when they are young will help in catching them young on these sensitive issues and put them up to the speed in the understanding these issues. Teaching them how to recognize the signs and knowing their rights and how to fight for their rights.
Commemoration of International Women’s Day on 8th of March provided a good opportunity to reach out to them to and teach them about GBV, SRHR and personal hygiene especially in this time of COVID-19 and also to give them few hygiene kits to enable them observe good hygiene behavior.
She also said that they targeted both boys and girls because they understood that boys also suffer Gender Based Violence, so they should also understand GBV.
She informed that Haly Hope Foundation engages in advocacy on SGBV, intervention in area of health especially SRH of women and girls with disabilities, intervention also in the area of education that is why they are targeting the schools because they believe in catching them young, they are also looking into the issue of drug abuse, women empowerment, policy formulation to ensure the promotion of disability inclusion.
She expected changes in their personal hygiene, more understanding of their rights on GBV and SRH and how to fight for their rights at the end of the project.
WATCH THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S INTERVIEW
They formed some groups and engage them with some activities and they would be coming back for follow up to ascertain the progress of the training.
TQM learnt that the team targeted 100 young girls with disabilities in the school which they have trained, they would be providing mentorship for them to be young advocates on GBV and SRH of women and girls with disabilities.
