Mr. Abdullahi Mahmood, Community Leader of Kuletu in Dass Local Government Area of Bauchi state, has commended a non-governmental organisation ‘Mennonite Economic Development Associates’ (MEDA) for playing a significant roles in the reduction of r*pe cases in the community.

Mahmood made the commendation in Bauchi on Saturday during the graduation ceremony of some boys and girls trained by the organisation across seven Local Government Areas of Bauchi state.

According to him, hitherto the coming of the NGO into his community, cases of r*pe were on the high side due to lack of sensitisation and training of the boys and girls as executed by the organization.

He explained that their children were trained by MEDA in collaboration with other Bauchi based NGOs like the Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), Fahimta Women and Youth Development Initiative (FAWOYDI) and Child is Gold Foundation (CIGF) as implementation partners.

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The Community Leader added that the programme was also designed to reduce the rate of out-of-school children, street hawking, early or forced marriages, drug abuse by empowering the adolescents with basic life skills and financial inclusion services.

“Before they came, there was news that was fabricated in order to stop the programme in my community. As a teacher, I thought about it and when they phoned me, I promised them that they would get 30 girls in my community to train.

“Some of the false news they were spreading about this programme is that they will indoctrinate our daughters and sisters not to get married until they are over 18 years and that s*x is good, marriage is bad.

“When they finally came to my own community, I personally attended the lectures and realised that all these news against them is not true.

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“What they are teaching our children is contrary to what we were told earlier. I had to convince all the Imams of mosques in my area.

“On the issue of hawking, they trained our daughters that if you must hawk, you don’t go into the rooms of boys as you could be r*ped.

“Initially, cases of r*pe were so rampant but now, if there is any case of r*pe, the girls feel confident to approach me directly as their Sarki and explains what has happened which I do take action immediately by inviting the police, taking the victim to the hospital for treating and prosecuting the culprit.

“This is made possible by the kind of training received from MEDA which has made them to know more about their rights. They now know how to invest, they know the value of education unlike before when we were completely living in darkness.

“At the end of the training, in my area now, almost all the girls that dropped out or left schools went back to school,” he said.

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Mahmood, who thanked God for the coming of the programme to his community, prayed that it would be extended to other localities that have not benefited and the state in general.

Also speaking, Mrs Dinah Istifanus, the Executive Director, FAWOYDI, one of the implementation partners, said no fewer than 1,198 youths comprising of 948 girls and 250 boys in 37 communities across Seven LGAs of Bauchi State have been trained within the past seven years in various skills acquisition programmes.

She listed the seven LGAs to include; Bauchi, Dass, Gamawa, Jama’are, Katagum, Toro and Warji LGAs, saying the programme is about looking critically on what girls in particular could encounter in their lives and how to help them overcome it.

“This is a programme that is being supported by MEDA and is all about supporting the girls, boys within the age of 11 to 18 on the life skills to run their lives without hitches.

“The programme is all about what are the possible challenges that girls would likely encounter in their lives especially, in the area of education, sociocultural norms and financial support that they need.

“Looking at the economic situation of the country, how can they sustain themselves in this kind of situation,” she said.