BREAKING THE SILENCE

You find yourself in a situation where you feel as if you are about to blow up! You want to talk to someone but you can't, you are crying deep down within you and your world seems as if it is falling apart. The fact is that you need to break the silence. When you are hurt by other people, you keep silent. When you get cheated, you keep silent. When are you going to start talking?!

If you find yourself in a situation you are sexually abused, what would you do? The person tells you "If you dare tell this to anyone, I'm going to kill you and I'll make life unbearable for you". As young person, do you think keeping silent is the best way to keep yourself safe? No way!  it simply means you are giving in to the continuation of such brutal act because the person won't stop harassing you until you speak out and tell him/her to stop! If you are being threatened, you should reach out to people you trust and seek help from them because there is no other best way of solving such an issue. If you stay silent it's dangerous. 

Though girls are mostly sexually abused but truth is truth even if no one believes it, a lie is a lie if everyone believes it; girls and boys are victims of sexual assaults. Anyone could fall victims of sexual abuse but keeping silent isn't the best option. It can drive you to a delusional state and you might end up killing yourself.

Silence cripples the mind and ones way of thinking, you shouldn't let fear get to you. Living a normal life isn't too much to ask but you need to realize that there are people who would always want to violate your sexual right either you like it or not. It cost nothing to speak out but remaining silent could cost everything including your life. Shatter the silence today and speak up! It's the best decision you can ever make..............

FACTS ABOUT TEENAGE PREGNANCY AND ABORTION

Teenage girls, because of their immaturity and possible lack of sex education indulge in pre-marital sex before the age of twenty. Lacking the chance and time to be properly educated about sex related issues, they become mothers at a very young age and this often results in cases of unwanted pregnancies, abandoned babies in the society, and negligent to sexually transmitted diseases.
The fact still remains that a child cannot raise another child hence, such a young mother becomes a burden to their families and the society at large. Though lots of effort has been made to control the issue of  teenage pregnancies and abortion by the media and through many organizations dedicated to the promotion of youth health and development but some of this effort has had no positive effects on teenagers because they still indulge in this act. Is it probably because teenagers don't understand the full implications of pre-marital sex or they don't know the consequences of abortion?
Virtually, every teenage girl who has had abortion is at a risk of psychological trauma. Research has proven that women who abort have a series of psychological symptoms than women who do not. The symptoms include loss of confidence and self-esteem, eating disorder such as anorexia and bulimia, illegal use of drugs, flash backs, hysterical outbreaks and suicide attempts. Loss of pleasure during sexual intercourse is also among these symptoms.
Studies show that 80% of pregnant teenagers eventually drops out of school and most of them usually end up with low paying jobs and life becomes really difficult for them. The offspring of these teenage mothers then grow up with emotional and educational problems and most times  fall victims of child abuse because of the immaturity of their mothers and financial inadequacies.
Teenagers should understand that pre-marital sex pushes a girl into poor marriage when she gets pregnant. A girl who think she is wise may say "I can always take precautions and use birth control pills so where is the pregnancy coming form?" As a girl, if you think you are wise I should ask you if contraceptive would stop you from getting sexually transmitted diseases. Even the best condoms are not 100% safe and and the word safe means means to be entirely free from danger. So, it is either you are safe or not. You will agree with me that even 1% is too risky.
It is people that make a nation, not the other way round. Future leaders are today's youth hence every youth should be enlightened  or educated on the challenges posed by the surrounding life issues of our day (sex education) because these days, the youths prefer advice from their fellow youth rather than from elders.

MY WORK IN ACTION HEALTH INCORPORATED: The Journey So Far

Driven by my passion and motivation towards young people, I decided to do a volunteer work at Action Health Incorporated as a youth assistant. Action Health Incorporated is an non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting young people's health and development.

Action Health Incorporated has been a leverage for me to do what I love doing best which is to reach-out to young people and adolescent girls. Through this organisation, I have conducted outreaches to various schools and talked to adolescents about sexual and reproductive health related issues such as teenage pregnancy, abortion, sexual harassment and so much more.


Issues about growing up is part of the challenges that young people face.  Adolescents especially the girl child are sexually abused which include cases such as rape, early marriages, sexual harassment.
 Some of them don't even know or understand what HIV/AIDS means or how it can be contracted. Therefore, these outreaches has been a platform for me to reach-out to young people and create awareness about sexuality education. The outreaches has also helped to enlighten young people about skills such as negotiation skills, assertiveness skills, communication skills which they will need to tackle sexual violation and how to make use of it effectively.

Commemorative days such as Female Genital Mutilation Day, Valentine's Day, International Women's Day are programmes which I have anchored in the organisation. The observation of these commemorative days is to create awareness about the importance and the impact they have in the lives of adolescents and youths. On this day, presentation such as drama and dance are presented by the students and this helps to create an atmosphere of relaxation and fun for the adolescents.




Action Health Incorporated also publish news letter called "Growing Up  " magazine which is given out to students in various schools. The contents of these magazine features topics on sexual and reproductive health that concerns adolescent. It also entails how to acquire life changing skills such as assertiveness skills, negotiation skills etc that adolescents needs. I have reached out to lots of adolescent and young people by give them copies of it to read inorder for them to gain more knowledge about sexual and reproductive health issues.

MY EXPERIENCE ABOUT THE SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING

The social media training was held at  Action Health Incorporated Office situated at17 Lawal Street, Off Oweh Street Jibowu. Its a training organised inorder to increase AHI staffs knowledge about social media. Its been a wonderful training so far and i have really learnt a lot on what the various social media platforms such as: 2go, Facebook, Twitter, Scribed, Youtube, Storify, and Blog is used for and how it can be managed effectively. Though at first, i though that I've really understood all these because the only account I had then was  Facebook, Whatsapp and 2go but thanks to this training, it has given me more knowledge about other social platforms and I also got the chance to open other social media account such as Tweeter and Blog.
Ms. Jennifer Ehidiamen who was facilitator explained how the social media can be managed effectively by an organisation and how it should be use to protect the organisation's interest.
I have learnt a lot from this training and it would have been so unlucky of me if i had missed it. A big thank you to AHI and Ms. Jennifer Ehidiamen. Kudos to you guys; you did a great job.