•Stakeholders take awareness campaign to teachers
By Sunday Ani
In a bid to reach out to scores of female students who are mostly the victims of human trafficking, forced prostitution, sex slavery and cheap labour in Europe, America, the Middle East and neighbouring Africa countries, a social impact organisation, Girls Inspired Development Network (GIDN), in partnership with Bon Voyage Travel and ProtectHer, has taken the campaign against human trafficking and irregular migration to teachers in secondary schools in Lagos State.
About 25 teachers selected from 25 secondary schools from Yaba, Sabo, and Iwaya among other areas within Lagos Mainland Local Government Area, were tutored and equipped with the comprehensive knowledge about the risks, tactics and indicators of human trafficking and irregular migration. They were taught what they need to know to be able to protect the female students from the rampaging human trafficking barons, who go about deceiving innocent young girls with mouthwatering job offers in foreign countries when, in actual sense, they only want to lure them into prostitution and cheap labour.
According to the Programme Manager, GIDN, Adebukola Adeboye, the one-day training programme was specifically meant for female teachers, because according to her, the organisers felt that the female students would connect more easily with them than the male teachers. “We felt that the female teachers are easily trusted by the female students and they will understand them better than the male teachers. The teachers will assist to establish meaningful relationships between the school and the girls, offer guidance, support, and a safe space for open communication.
“The male teachers may not really understand what women and girls pass through in the hands of traffickers. The female teachers are in a better position to understand the plight of the girls and women. When they speak to female students about these issues, they will easily connect,” she stated.
Tagged, ‘Project Guardian,’ the project, which is part of the Bon Voyage Travel’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), is targeted at contributing to a more equitable and secure world for women and girls, who are susceptible to human trafficking, modern-day slavery, and exploitation, particularly in Lagos State.
“We are engaging teachers because we see them as the best vehicle to send messages across to the students. The organisation is also visiting schools and engaging the students on the issue of human trafficking and irregular migration, but since the teachers see the students every day, we felt that they will continue to engage students on a more regular basis.
“The students can easily build trust around their teachers and consult them when confused, instead of waiting for special people to come to their aid. Most of the teachers are from the guidance and counseling unit, so it is easier for them to connect with their students,” she said.
She noted that another idea behind empowering teachers with the necessary information is because most often the students report some of the challenges they face on a daily basis to their teachers, but because the teachers don’t have adequate information about the issues, they are not always able to offer the needed help.
“So, this training will bridge that information gap by educating teachers so that they can also pass the knowledge they have acquired from this training across to the students in their schools.
“It is also beneficial to teachers because they can also be deceived by these barons. Besides, they also want to travel, so, it is important that they are aware of some of the challenges, so that they will also know how to go about it to protect themselves and their students as well,” she said.
Adeboye noted that the project was in phases and that the first phase involved providing social media advocacy, market awareness, teachers’ training and mentorship support to 230 girls selected from Birrel Avenue High School and Herbert Macaulay Senior Secondary School, both in Yaba.
Speaking about the training, one of the participants, Akinsola Modupe Elizabeth, from the Western Girls Senior Secondary School, Yaba, described the training as very insightful, enlightening, educative and interesting. She commended the quality of the trainers, whom she said were learned and experts in the field.
She promised to go back to the drawing board in her school and ensure that she extended the knowledge she got from the training to her female students. “They need to know their purpose in life, so that they don’t make the same mistakes that some of the older ones have made,” she added.
On her recommendations for future programmes, she said: “I would love the training to continue. I would also suggest that male teachers should be involved in future training, so that they can also take it back to the male students because the problem is not restricted to girls alone. Boys are also involved in irregular migration and are also trafficked. I would like this kind of training to be held quarterly, maybe once every three months.”
Other participants like Mrs. Motunrayo Idowu, from Aje Comprehensive Senior High School, Sabo Yaba, and Oshineye Modupe Hannah, from Ayetoro Senior Grammar School, Yaba, equally described the training as enlightening, educative, mind blowing and timely.
According to Mrs. Idowu, it is okay for one to desire to travel, but such a person must endeavor to follow the normal and legal route. “I like the fact that teachers are being considered because we are educators and we deal with the children who are disposed to this menace. Many of them would want to travel but they don’t know the right way to follow.
“We should make them be close to us, feel free so that they can actually share their thoughts with us. This kind of training should also involve male teachers because they equally deal with male students who are also vulnerable to trafficking. The organisers should just try to involve the male gender next time,” she said.
For Hannah, the training has really opened her eyes to what she never knew before. She said: “We have even started working on our girls before now, but this has opened our eyes even more. We have learnt how to detect those who are already at the verge of being trafficked or lured into irregular migration.
“I am the school counsellor and we see these kinds of cases on a daily basis. I am going to introduce a one-on-one session with my students. I have been doing that and they know that whatever they discuss with me is confidential and safe.
“I will liaise with the principal to organise sessions for them and create awareness against human trafficking and irregular migration. These barons always come in disguised as people who want to assist the girls, but they actually take them out of the country for prostitution. We are saying, no to that and it must stop.”