By Patrick Ochei
At their official inauguration in Asaba, the predominantly women organisation under the aegis of Standup for Women Society (SWS), Delta State Chapter has declared that its focus in the next two years would be to advocate for women and the Girl-Child, adding that its presence would reduce incidences of child prostitution to the barest minimum by ensuring to take the straying girls out of the street in Delta State and beyond.
This revelation was made during a media parley immediately after the inauguration of the Chapter Executive headed by Mrs. Stella Macaulay as Chairperson with investigative expose of how under-aged girls loiter around hotels in Asaba at night with their alleged customers doing a quickie with them around the hidden areas of the fences.
Macaulay while giving a road map into her programmes in the next two years as Chairperson, promised to make taking destitute girl children who are consciously and unconsciously going into prostitution and drug out of the street.
She said the group would engage the girls under the age brackets of adolescents and teenagers through value reorientation and rehabilitation, and going further by providing them with skills or encouraging them to go back to school; and where necessary, collaborate with other NGOs to achieve their targets.
Mrs. Macaulay who is a Director of Orientation and Functioning Permanent Secretary of the Directorate of Orientation, affirmed that with the Psycho-Social Support Centre already unveiled, SWS would be able to give needed support to vulnerable women and street girls in the society.
Her words, “I welcome you all to this auspicious event of our inauguration. We are here to uncover what the Liberators had been doing already through the Standup for Women Society platform. Our sole aim is to heed the clarion call of sisterhood; which is to change the narratives of women not supporting their kind.
“We in SWS are building strong linkages with other likeminds to advance the course of women. Our business is that the mental wellbeing, the consciousness of women and girl children is taken into paramount consideration in executing our agenda. The life of a Girl-Child is centred around the production of a nation; and so that precious opportunity must not be wasted on the excuse of not having time to attend to the numerous needs of girls and women. The girl child in some societal beliefs is prepared ahead of time to get into marriage even when she doesn’t understand what marriage is all about. From the time the girl child is born, she has no time to think of herself, except being made to undertake multi tasks in life. It’s time to discuss as women; and so this ceremony provides that opportunity to dissect the many challenges of women and thinker way forward to most of them, if not all”, Macaulay explained.
In her admonition, the National President of SWS, Barr (Mrs) Deborah Ijadele Adetona said, the organisation is solely for women and has nothing to do with political groups, except that some of the members might belong to political parties of their choices.
She said women in the group are for themselves, fighting their course together from the 36 State Chapters and FCT Abuja, without considering men as their problem.
Adetona affirmed that women are the problem of women, which is what SWS seeks to change by engaging the men to support the women in achieving their God-given purpose on earth.
Meanwhile, the Special Guest of Honour and Keynote Speaker at the occasion, HRM Obi Martha Dunkwu did urge the women to drop the idea of gender equality from their agenda if they ever had such, giving them instances of how life is patterned around man by God from creation.
She said, because the story of creation did not talk about equality, she would never support equality but instead, would prefer to agitate for women to be supported by men to complement them and be allowed to fulfill their God-given potentials in life.
She therefore called on women to stop relegating their kind to the background, and instead, encourage one another as they strive to accomplish their dreams in a male dominated world.
However, she admonished that for any woman to emerge triumphant in an attempt to standup for what she believes and desires, she must be educated both formally and informally. She said education is the universal key that opens all doors; and quoting a former presidential aspirant, Sarah Jubril, she said that “Education of the mind is the mind of Education”.
Aligning with the women and every agenda canvassed, the Chairman of the occasion, Bashorun Askia Ogeh, ably represented by Mr. Lawrence Efenudu, encouraged the women to go all out to ensure that the woman is not subjugated to the background of servitude and bottom-line achievements.
He affirmed that women must be encouraged to achieve their full potentials in the scheme of things, promising to partner the group to achieve its purpose.
According to him, if the girl child is properly nurtured under parenting, the society would be better.
Moreover, there was also a panel of discussants comprising of the National President of SWS, Barr (Mrs) Deborah Ijadele Adetona, the Accountant General of Delta State, Mrs. Joy Enwa, the Chief Medical Director of Asaba Specialist Hospital, Dr (Mrs) Peace Ighowese and of course a Value Reorientation Coach, Africa’s Premium Kids, Teens and Parenting Coach, Mr Ogaga Darlington Ossai, and they all did justice to the Theme of the Inauguration Ceremony: Real Women Conversations: Real Stories of Our Pains, Strength and Triumph”.
At the end of the occasion, special recognition awards were presented to Bashorun Askia Ogeh, Obi Martha Dunkwu, Mrs. Joy Enwa and Dr (Mrs) Peace Ighowese for their various contributions to the uplifting of women in the society.