Kwara Government, OCDI Move To Curb GBV, Boost Girl-child Education

The Kwara State government, through Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project, in collaboration with Olive Community Development Initiative (OCDI), has organised training programmes for teachers and counsellors on life skills education.

The five-day intensive training, held in Ilorin, the state capital, brought together mentors from Asa and Moro, Ilorin West, Ilorin South and Ilorin East local government areas of the state.

In his remarks, the adolescent girls specialist of the Kwara AGILE project, Abosede Adeleye, said the Safe Space initiative was designed to ensure that girls across the 16 local government areas of the state remain in school and acquire vital life skills.

She added that the programme aimed at empowering girls to become confident, self-reliant and capable of navigating life’s challenges.

Abosede noted that many girls who enrolled in secondary school failed to complete their education up to senior secondary school (SSS) due to early marriage, teenage pregnancy or voluntary withdrawal.

She stressed that lack of proper education and empowerment for girls contributed significantly to rising poverty levels and social challenges, including crime and insurgency.

In his lecture, senior technical adviser on Family Health, Bolaji Umar, explained that the trained mentors would establish safe spaces in their respective schools to provide continuous guidance and counselling for adolescent girls.

He praised AGILE and OCDI for their sustained commitment to improving the quality of life for young girls.

The chief executive officer of OCDI, Oluwatoni Adeleke, said that the primary goal of the programme was to provide safe spaces that help girls stay in school and complete their education.

She observed that girls who drop out due to pregnancy often face poverty and increased vulnerability to GBV later in life, urging mentors to apply the knowledge gained for lasting impact.