INT’L DAY OF THE GIRL CHILD 2025: ESLF Sensitizes, Gives Sanitary Pads to Over 100 Girls in Benue IDP Camp.

To commemorate the International Day of the Girl Child 2025, Eunice Spring of Life Foundation (ESLF) has distributed free sanitary pads to over 100 girls at Daudu II Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp in Benue State, and sensitised them about some key aspects of life including leadership, health, dignity and protection to boost their knowledge, confidence and resilience level, empowering them to overcome certain life’s challenges peculiar to the female gender.

The sensitisation which covered topics like Gender Based Violence (GBV), Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management (MHHM), Breast and Cervical Cancer as well as special survival skills, equipped the girls with the requisite knowledge, special skills and coping strategies to help surmount challenges.

Facilitating a session on Leadership, ESLF’s Coordinating Programme Officer for Health, Erdoo Yankyaa admonished them to build leadership capacity through decision making, networking, unity and peer support. She affirmed that by intervening in her thematic areas of Health, Governance, Agriculture & Environment, as well as Education and Research, ESLF has provided steady support for vulnerable persons including girls like them.

The Programme Coordinator of ESLF, Dr. Comfort Abaa advised the girls to take proactive steps to curb breast cancer including regular Breast Self-Examination which she demonstrated practically, explaining how this would help them to be conversant with the “normal” shape, size and feel of their breasts to enable them personally monitor and detect any sign of “abnormality” on them which should be reported promptly to a qualified health personnel for further examination and diagnosis.

On the need for proactive measures to avoid contracting the deadly Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which causes cancer, Celina Chivir of the Planned Parenthood Foundation of Nigeria (PPFN) on the ESLF team, encouraged teenage girls to avail themselves of the opportunity for free vaccination against HPV, a campaign ESLF has relentlessly championed over the years.

Taking another vital session on Menstrual Health, Doosuurshater Agemafa of the Universities Outreach Initiative (UOI) also on the team, explained steps on how the girls could handle their menstruation, demonstrated practical steps to use disposable sanitary pads and proper disposal methods of used pads.

High points of the sensitisation included the distribution of over 100 sanitary pads to the girls, recitation of the Girls’ Leadership Pledge and a general dance celebration by all to celebrate the special global day for girls.

The International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated annually on October 11 all over the world to draw the attention of society to issues affecting girls which ESLF has been advocating for since her inception in 2016.

The theme for this year’s celebration which is, “The girl I am, the change I lead: Girls on the frontlines of crisis”, underscores the role girls need to play to bring about the positive change they require for them to make any appreciable and lasting impact both in their personal lives and in the world they live in.

Happy International Day of the Girl Child 2025!