Group vows to help the less privilege

Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) living in Ajah area and its environs in Lagos will soon have a course to smile as a civil society non-governmental organization the Community Empowerment Partners Incorporated (CEPI) have promised to keep donating education and other relief materials in batches to the children.
At the presentation of some education materials to some Orphans and vulnerable children in Lagbasa Community Primary School on Monday January 8 about 10 children were presented with various educational materials such as packs of exercise books, school uniforms, packs of biros, school bags, sandals, rulers amongst others.
The executive director of CEPI Mrs. Olubunmi Tejumola in an interview said that the presentations one of the ways the organisation wants to impact the community by identifying with the children especially the vulnerable ones.
“To us vulnerable children are the one who don’t have either the father or the mother of both parents or nobody to take cares of them, we therefore count it worthy to help them,” Mrs. Tejumola said.
She said that contrary to some opinions that OVCs are not many in Lagos there are many OVCs in the Urban-rural areas such as Lagos, “They are many Orphans and Vulnerable Children here, in fact we have over 200 of them here in this community,” she said.
Mrs. Tejumola in a show of care and affection adopted an OVC Ibrahim Taofeek who is been look after presently by an aged grandmother who is not too strong and he does not come to school regularly.
One of the trustees of the organisation popular actress, Mrs. Joke Silva Jacobs did the presentation on behalf of the organisation and promised that the organisation will not stop supporting the children.
Community Empowerment Partners was established in 2004 and since then has embarked on various training and community development programmes to achieve it vision of putting smiles on the faces of people that could not be reached and less privilege.

Group calls for eradication of Female Genital Mutilation

The audience were all appalled at the scene before them, some who could not endure such a show simply move outside the hall or turn their face away from the gruelling scenes emanating from the projector. Some simply whimper that the perpetrators be killed. It was indeed one horrible scene that can purge out the heart just like a horror film but this time it was real life.
It was a documentary on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation across Nigeria and Africa showed at the 7th International Day on Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other harmful traditional practice organised by the Inter-African Committee (IAC) Nigeria on Traditional Practices affecting The Health of women and Children at the banquet hall of Ikeja Local government on Wednesday.
The film show was part of the programme aimed at projecting the damages that female circumcision and other hurtful traditional practices could have on women psychologically and physiologically.
Speaking on the reason for the theme ‘Role of men and boys in the elimination of FGM’ the Executive Director, IAC, Mrs. Oyefunso Orenuga said that since the practice is done in a subtle way and most times it is to please the men, then, if men are educated and informed about the dangers inherent in FGM they can help stop the spread of the practice.
For the children, she said the need to be informed and educated from childhood on the reason why it is evil and should be eschew when they grow up because as she put its “the men made the decisions on whether their children should be circumcise or not”.
She decried the situation where among medical practitioners FGM is been medicalised, saying that the organisation is also campaigning against the medicalization of FGM, hence, the sub-theme ‘Engaging health workers in the campaign to reach zero tolerance to FGM and early child marriage’.
Orenuga later did a demonstration on how FGM is carried out and the effect it use to have on women later in life especially when they want to deliver, which could render them childless or even destroy the foetus.
In her key note address, the President of IAC-Nigeria Professor Modupe Onadeko said that the programme was organised to call the attention of Government and other stakeholders to see the need to accelerate and implement actions to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation in Nigeria.
“Female Genital Mutilation is violence against women, it is violence against human rights of women and against the promotion of gender equality,” she said while stressing that men as the head of the family are in better position to make decisions against the practice of FGM.
Prof. Onadeko explained that children especially boys should be involve from the early stage of life by inculcating in them the right attitude so that by the time they become adult and get married they can say No to FGM.
“This partnership will work tirelessly to see that a law to criminalize this act and other harmful traditional practice should be passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly as a matter of urgency,” she said.
In his goodwill message, the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Lagos State represented by Mrs. Mojisola Kasim said that the role of collaboration cannot be over emphasis, hence, the administration will leave no stone unturn to stop the practice saying that the IAC should be rest assured of the support of the state ministry of Health in tackling the scourge.
On her own part the representative of the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Idoko reveal that over 140 million women are subjected to this harmful and horrible practice and call for the need to educate youths and children.
Chief Ade Omiata from the Ministry of Health and also a consultant with IAC talks about the importance of involving men in the elimination of FGM “men will have to say no, it is awful and evil,” he said. He later called for the message about the dangers of FGM to be taken to the rural areas.
The Inter-African committee on Traditional Practices (IAC) is made up of 28 Africa countries where FGM and early child marriages are been practice. It was founded in 1984 while the Nigeria office was founded in 1985. The International day on Zero Tolerance to female genital Mutilation was officially launched by the former first lady of Nigeria Mrs. Stella Obasanjo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2003 and recognised by the United Nation