By Nnamdi Ojiego

Worried by alarming rise in sexual abuse cases against children, Cece Yara Foundation, said it is training and empowering teachers with the necessary skills to tackle the menace.

Cece Yara, as non-governmental organization working to prevent child sexual abuse and provide access to care, said it recognizes the critical role educators play in shaping young minds and safeguarding their well-being, hence the of 200 teachers to become advocates for child protection and safety.

According to Mrs Bisi Ajayi Kayode, Chief Executive Officer of Cece Yara, the teacher training, held on Tuesday at the Agege Government College, Iyana Ipaja, was aimed at to creating a network of informed and vigilant teachers who can identify early warning signs of abuse, provide support to vulnerable students, and collaborate with authorities to prevent and respond to cases of child defilement, abuse and molestation.

She noted that the gesture was part of the foundation’s efforts to augment the national and Lagos State child protection agenda.

“What we are implementing today is research-based and evidence-informed. It is to inculcate the best practices of preventing and responding to child sexual abuse to educators. At Cece Yara and globally speaking, we know it is the responsibility of adults to protect and to save children”, Kayode explained.

She continued: “Children by virtue of their physical and cognitive abilities cannot prevent or respond to child sexual abuse. Statistics have shown that 20% of child sexual abuse cases occur in schools with 90% of the perpetrators being family members, which makes it difficult for children to report or to make disclosures. That’s why you see that when it’s happening at home, the children come to school and confide in their teachers.

The teachers need to know the five basic steps of knowing the facts, what is child sexual abuse, contractual or non-contactual. It can happen on site, it can happen online like you have child pornography, sextortions, cybercrime bullying, and all that.

“Then you need to minimise the opportunity for each to occur because it’s our guiding policy at Cece Yara not to leave any child behind, either physically or digitally. We need to create an opportunity to talk about a sex education. We are here to demystify the mystery behind child sexual abuse.”

The participants drawn from public schools in Alimosho Local Government Area described the exercise as a step in the right direction and welcomed intervention to checkmate sexual abuses against children.

A participant and Chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Agege Branch, Comrade. Ojedokun Bolaji, said the Lagos state government frowns seriously at cases of sexual molestation of students.

“I think this programme is a step in the right direction. I have had instances where one or two girls complained that they were being molested basically at home. When such a report comes to us, based on the protocol that has been laid down by the state government, who in their wisdom have placed social workers and counsellors in different schools, it is always our duty to officially report such incidences to the school counsellors, who are expected to carry out some therapeutic and remedial actions on the victim before he or she also translates the information to the appropriate social worker handling the education district”, Bolaji narrated.

Another participant, Mrs Titilope Ajibare, said the training would equip the teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to help victims of sexual abuse in their respective schools.

She said: “It will help me a lot. We teachers need to stand up to the task. We need to help our students, and how do we go about helping them? One of the things which I have known for long, and which is part of me is that you must be approachable.

“As a teacher, students must be able to come to you and say please, this is what I’m going to through, this is what I’m feeling. I will call it a ministry that I have found myself.”