Female children in Kwara State have identified poor parenting, bullying and sexual harassment as some of the child abuse issues prevalent in the state.
The children made the disclosure on Tuesday in Ilorin at a programme organised by the state government in collaboration with Olive Community Initiative (OCDI) on curbing child abuse and gender -based violence (GBV) in the state.
One of the girl- child that participated in the event, Mariam Danmaigoro from Ilorin East local government area identified poor parenting as one of the child abuse issues in the state, lamenting that some parents are fond of sending their children on errands at odd hours in the night.
Morenike Kasim from Asa local government area and Oluwabukola Rajin from Ilorin South local government area identified bullying and sexual assaults as other forms of child abuses prevalent in their localities.
The programme themed “State Of The Nigerian Girl Summit Songs 2022” is aimed at documenting various issues of child abuse in the state
Films and videos were shown to the participants on documented cases of gender -based violence and child abuse.
Declaring the programme open,an
assistant director,Child’s Directorate, Ministry of Women Affairs, Hajia Idiat Alabi- Amuda, urged the participants to feel free to disclose the abuses they had suffered in their respective localities, adding that the programme was organised in furtherance of the state government’s efforts at eradicating gender -based violence in the state.
The representative of Olive Community Development Initiative, Blessing Akanbi, urged the children to always cry out whenever anybody abused or attempted to abuse them.
Explaining that any violence against any woman is a violence to all women, she urged the participants to help any woman who suffers abuse by exposing the perpetrator of such act.