Mary Nnah
To mark this year International Girl Child Day Celebration 2020, which is celebrated every October 11, the International Charitable Initiative For Girl Child and Woman Development Foundation (IC- GWODEF), visited the female prison inmates at Kirikiri, Lagos so as to give them hope and a voice.
This year’s theme which is “One Voice, Our Equal Future” saw the NGO who are mostly female lawyers coming to the female correction center with gifts and food items.
President of the organisation, Mrs. Helen lbeji said the essence of the visit was to give the girl child and woman a voice as most of them are helpless.
Ibeji went ahead to reiterate that their love and compassion for the girl child and woman has made them come to the correction centre so as to celebrate them and also offer free legal expertise to those who are in need of it.
While stressing that her organisation carried the file of some indigent women and girls to render to them free legal services, Ibeji added that IC- GWODEF will continue to stand in the gap for them.
“Our voices are our great future, I urge the girl child to always speak out whenever they are in great danger, any person who is trying to lure them into sin, they
should not be afraid of speaking out” , she stated.
In the same vein, Mrs. Ify Uzokwe, a member of the team stressed the importance of the girl child in every society, stating that every girl child deserves a good and qualitative education, good upbringing and care.
Welcoming the body, the Deputy Controller in charge of the Female Correction Centre, DCP Ekpendu Lizze thanked the organisation for finding time to celebrate with the inmates she calls her children.
Speaking further Ekpendu described IC- GWODEF coming as a big boost to the inmates, stressing that since her assumption in office she has ensured that the inmates
who she sees as her children never lack anything as God has always given them wisdom to lead.
She posited that the prison headquarters, which is also known as correctional centre, through the Controller General of Prison, Alhaji Ja’ afaru Ahmed has improved the prison drastically and that since the inception of COVID- 19, the center has not witnessed any victim, as they have ensured that the environment is clean.
While appealing to parents to always love the girl child, as mothers need to have time for their children, counsel and educate them on sex education, she opined that the girl child are the most special breed and for this, needs absolute
attention and above all should be rooted in the word of God.
Highlight of the event was presentation of gifts and offering of legal expertise to those who are in need of it.
