Animasahun Salman, Sokoto
The United Nations Population Fund Youth Participatory Platform, Sokoto State, has sensitised adolescents and young people with disabilities on sexual and reproductive health rights, gender-based violence prevention, positive masculinity and menstrual hygiene.
The programme, organised in collaboration with Taimako Inclusive Development Initiative (TIDI) and the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD), was held at the Sokoto South Conference Hall on Tuesday
The awareness session provided participants with information on their health, rights, safety and wellbeing, while creating a platform for them to ask questions and discuss challenges affecting young people with disabilities.
Speaking during the programme, the UNFPA-YPP PWD Desk Officer, Maimunatu Salihu, said the initiative was aimed at ensuring that disability did not become a barrier to accessing healthcare, accurate information, protection and opportunities.
Salihu said, “The essence of the programme is to create awareness among adolescents and young people with disabilities on issues that directly affect their health, rights, safety and overall wellbeing.”
She added that the session was designed as a safe space where participants could interact, share experiences and learn from one another.
Also speaking, the Chairperson of UNFPA-YPP Sokoto, Hamidu Almustapha, stressed the importance of involving young people in programmes and decisions that affect their lives.
He said youths should not merely be treated as beneficiaries but should be allowed to identify challenges, propose solutions and contribute to development activities.
Almustapha further emphasised the need for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in development programmes, saying they had equal rights to information, participation, dignity, safety and opportunities.
During a presentation on positive masculinity, Salihu explained that societal and cultural expectations could sometimes discourage boys from expressing their emotions or seeking assistance when facing difficulties.
She urged parents and caregivers to provide boys with care, affection, protection and emotional support, stressing that such support would contribute to their emotional and social development.
She also encouraged young men to reject the notion that masculinity should be associated with aggression, dominance or violence.
Instead, she advocated respect, empathy, responsibility, self-control, equality and peaceful communication as positive values that could promote healthier relationships and safer communities.
The UNFPA-YPP Co-Chair, Aisha Muhammad, linked positive masculinity to the prevention of gender-based violence, urging participants to challenge harmful stereotypes and behaviours that could contribute to violence.
Facilitating the session on gender-based violence, Muhammad explained that GBV could manifest through physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse.
She said persons with disabilities could face additional barriers in accessing protection and reporting abuse, making disability-inclusive support systems necessary.
“Everyone, including adolescents and young people with disabilities, has the right to live in an environment free from violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination,” she said.
Muhammad urged participants not to normalise violence or remain silent when abuse occurs, advising them to seek assistance from trusted persons and appropriate service providers.
Menstrual hygiene
A UNICEF peer educator, Comrade Nafiu Umar Muhammad, who spoke on menstrual hygiene, described menstruation as a normal biological process that should not be surrounded by shame or stigma.
He stressed the importance of access to accurate information, menstrual materials, clean water and sanitation facilities to enable girls and young women to manage menstruation with dignity.
Muhammad also called for menstrual health information and facilities to be made accessible to young people with disabilities.
He urged participants to help dispel myths and misconceptions surrounding menstruation and encourage open discussions on menstrual health.
The programme also featured an interactive session during which participants asked questions and discussed challenges associated with accessing health information and services, cultural expectations, violence, discrimination and inclusion.
In his vote of thanks, the Secretary of the association, Mukhtar Doki, commended UNFPA-YPP, TIDI, JONAPWD and the facilitators for organising the programme.
Doki encouraged participants to share the knowledge gained with their peers and communities.
He said the programme’s impact would be enhanced if participants became “ambassadors” of the knowledge and positive messages received during the session.
The organisers subsequently called for regular sensitisation programmes on sexual and reproductive health rights, GBV prevention, positive masculinity and menstrual hygiene, as well as increased participation of young people with disabilities in advocacy and decision-making processes.
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