By Tosin Ojoborun
Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency has inducted three hundred students from Education District five into the Kings and Queens Club after weeks of orientation to stand against any forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the state.
Its Executive Secretary, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, said the initiative was designed to establish a sustainable social framework within educational institutions, aimed at dismantling socio-cultural misconceptions and promoting empowered femininity.
Vivour-Adeniyi, represented by the Agency’s Programs Officer, Zainab Alaka, stated that the initiative also seeks to build a network of trained students who would act as peer educators and advocates for positive expressions of femininity and masculinity within their schools.
She noted that the clubs would equip participants with deeper knowledge about Gender-Based Violence, empowering them to critically examine prevailing societal norms that sustain gender inequality, while also challenging myths and false beliefs surrounding violence.
Vivour-Adeniyi, said empowering and inaugurating the students into the King’s Club and Queen’s Club Initiative was expedient as children are amongst the statistics of victims, prey to peodophiles and forms of abuse.
Also, the Agency’s Head of Community Engagement and the Project Coordinator for King’s club and Queen’s club, Damilare Adewusi, said the programme aimed at reiterating the state government’s zero tolerance for all forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence, and to address the grappling issues of violence that individuals and communities are faced with.
While urging them to speak out and report any case of sexual violence in their community, Adewusi said the purpose was to help the young boys and girls to imbibe the act of discipline in the fight to end Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Lagos.
Adewusi, also the Project Coordinator for Kings and Girls club, urged the students to continue to strive for excellence and champion a world free of all forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence and to see themselves as ambassadors and change agents in the society.
One of the Teachers from Ansar Ud Deen Society Senior Grammar School Badagry, Linda Orji, who commended efforts of the Agency in ensuring attitudinal change in the society, said the effort would tackle the menace of Gender Based Violence and the prevention of child domestic and sexual abuse in Lagos
A student of Araromi Ilogbo Secondary School Oko-Afo Badagry, Ayomide Amoo, who stated that he has learned a lot of being in a kings club, stressing that the club has shown him how not to be harmful in the society. but report any forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the society.
Also, A Student of Ajara Senior Grammar School, Badagry, Efe Heaven stated that he would always be a peer educators and advocates of positive femininity and masculinity in the society.
Meanwhile, after taking the pledge of allegiance, the students from the Education District five, were subsequently inducted into the club and awarded certificates and identity cards to validate their induction into the club.
