Speak Up When Abused, RSG, UNICEF Task Adolescents

The Rivers State Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have called on adolescents in the state to always speak up when abused.
The two bodies made this remark at a sensitisation programme organised by Rivers State Government in collaboration with UNICEF in Port Harcourt.
The programme which took place at Model Secondary School, Rumueme, under the theme:”Transition from Childhood to Adulthood Physically and Mentally from Pre-Pandemic Life into a Life Shaped by Pandemic”, was part of the activities to commemorate the 2022 International Adolescent Health Week.
The Adolescent Desk Officer, Rivers State Ministry of Health, Mrs Wokoma Ngeriba, said the adolescent week was to ensure visibility for the adolescent.
She said the adolescent needed to be visible and speak out when abused both sexually and other wise.
Ngeriba further said some adolescents take to drugs and prostitution because of abandonment by the society, adding that time has come for the authorities to come up with programmes that will improve the conditions of the adolescents in the society.
Similarly, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rivers Field specialist, Dr Anselem Audu, said the organisation was collaborating with the Rivers State Ministry of Health and other organisations to improve the conditions of the adolescents in the society.
Audu said this year’s theme was aimed at the adolescents especially in this post pandemic era.
According to him, society’s abandonment of the adolescents has created rooms for rampant teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and other social vices.
A member of the planning committee, Mrs Chiwendu Wokoma, added that the adolescents needed to be visible with their complaints.
She said the issue of mental health was common due to the abandonment of the adolescent.

By: John Bibor & Oribim Ibama