In commemoration of the International Day of the Girl, 2022 with the theme; Our time is now-our rights, our future, the Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA) in collaboration with Catherina International Academy, Dutse-Alhaji, FCT organized an Intra-School Debate of the End Violence Against Girls (E-VAG) club, funded by ActionAid Nigeria through the SLOC-VAWG project. The debate was held on the 11th of October 2022, at Catherina International Academy and had in attendance the students, school management, members of the press and IWOGRA team.
The objectives of the activity were:
- To engage the students on current issues in the society and the importance of sex education in schools as a way of contributing to the reduction of sexual violence and exploitation against girls.
- To strengthen the sustainable structure (the E-VAG club) in the school that will help debunk sociocultural misconceptions, promote positive attitudes as well as behavioural change in the minds of students and will ultimately reduce the occurrence of sexual violence and exploitation against girls in the society.
The school Director, Mrs. Ibiyemi Sonoiki gave a welcome address, welcoming everyone to the activity and wishing all the girls a happy International Day of the Girl celebration. She stated that the E-VAG club which was created as a result of the interventions of the SLOC-VAWG project in the school helps in creating awareness of violence against girls and contributing to the reduction of sexual violence and exploitation of girls. She thanked IWOGRA for bringing such intervention into the school while they looked forward to more future collaborations with the organization.
Nkechi Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam, Executive Director of IWOGRA, gave an opening remark. She thanked the school management for giving IWOGRA the opportunity to collaborate with them to organize the activity and wishing the girls a happy International Day of the Girl celebration. She stated that the day is special as it also marks the 1st anniversary of the E-VAG club that was established on same day the previous year (2021). Also, that the debate is timely as it addresses a topic that concerns girls and will increase conversations around building girls’ agency, right to bodily autonomy and eliminate sexual exploitation which has become a common practice since the emergence of COVID-19. She encouraged all to pay attention and encourage the debaters.
An argumentative approach was deployed to achieve the objectives of the activity, where some of the students were divided into two teams to speak for and against the topic ‘Should sex education be encouraged in schools?’.
The judges were given time to collate and announce the results of the debate. The debaters were scored based on their presentation of arguments, illustration and examples, rebuttal of the opposing arguments, overall presentation, language performance and time management.
The Chief Judge, Nkiruka Joy Aka-Azubike, read out the requirements in which the debaters were scored and stated that Team A scored a cumulative of 49 points while Team B scored a cumulative of 46 points. Team A was declared the winner of the debate and prizes were presented to all the debaters.
The school Director gave the closing remarks, commending IWOGRA for the great initiative and the debaters for putting in efforts to address the germane issue. She also announced that the E-VAG Club members now have a customized dress to be worn to school on their club meeting days. She stated that purple colour was chosen and the dress has been designed by the school. The Executive Director of IWOGRA encouraged the students and the school to keep the conversation going and to continue to relentlessly take actions to end sexual violence against girls.