Banigo Unveils Protect Girl Child Peer Group Club

Rivers State Deputy Governor Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo has said that the fight against gender-based violence or sexual abuse cannot be won without bringing the boys on board.
Banigo stated this during the inauguration of the Protect the Girl Child Initiative Peer Group Club on Sexual Violence at the Federal Government College in Port Harcourt, last Wednesday.
Represented by her Senior Special Assistant on General Duties and the Coordinator of the Protect the Girl Child Initiative programme in her office, Barrister Inegogo Fubara, Banigo said “We cannot successfully end this fight against gender-based violence or sexual abuse without bringing the boys on board. We know the perpetrators mainly are boys, but the boys also are victims of sexual abuse, so, we thought it wise to start the Protect the Girl Child Initiative Peer Group Club.
“This is the first one; we decided to come to Federal Government College, which is a Unity School.So, you all are lucky to be part of something that is going to be really great. We plan to start up this club in other schools but, have started with this FGC PH. By engaging you boys, we believe that issues that have to do with consent, issues of communication and rape, all those issues of sexual abuse require not only the female gender but also the male”.
Banigo disclosed that the Peer Group Club was borne out of her desire to have a one-on-one talk with the children, from the fallout of the seminar she organised last year on mental health and child abuse, adding that it was important to have a one-on-one interaction with the children on issues relating to child abuse.
She noted that it was called Protect the Girl Child Initiative, but added that boys were encouraged to join the club whose president and vice president were male.
According to the deputy governor, boys were encouraged to join because the fight to end sex abuse and gender-based violence cannot be successful without bringing the boys on board.
“We know the perpetrators mainly are boys but the boys are also victims of sexual abuse. So, we thought it wise to start the Protect the Girl Child Initiative Peer Group Club at the Federal Government College which is a unity school.So, you all are lucky to be part of something that is going to be really great.We plan to start up this club in other schools but have started with this one”, she further stressed.
In her presentation, the Resource Person, Mrs. Onyiye Ananaba said “globally one out of three women experience sexual violence.If we have 60million people within a space, at least, 20million, which represents 23 -36percent would experience unwanted sex with an intimate partner”.
She noted that approximately 20percent of women and 5 to 10percent of men in the world were reported to have been survivors of sexual violence at infancy.
According to her, 150million girls and seven million boys experience sexual violence globally.
Highlight of the occasion was the inauguration of an eight-man executive of the club headed by Master Alex-Igbarima Golden, an SS3 student.