PRESENTATION TO THE PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL
BY
BENE E. MADUNAGU
CHAIRPERSON, EXECUTIVE BOARD
GIRLS' POWER INITIATIVE (GPI) NIGERIA
OCTOBER, 1997
Distinguished Members of the President's Council of the International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), "Girls' Power Initiative (GPI), Nigeria" is a non-governmental, non-profit organization based in Nigeria, which seeks to empower young girls especially those between the ages of 10 and 18 years and to promote their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights through Educational Programmes, Counselling, Referral Services and Social Action. Presently GPI activities are coordinated from two centres, Calabar the capital of Cross River State and Benin City, the capital of Edo State. Calabar and Benin-City are in the South East and South West of Nigeria respectively.
WHY GPI?:
Traditionally, it is a taboo in Nigeria, as in many parts of the world, to discuss matters of sexuality with young people in the erroneous belief that ignorance would encourage purity, virginity and chastity especially for the girl child. Yet, there are risky and very devastating results of this denial for young people as can be seen in a high rate of unintended teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion. Available data show that 2 out of every 5 secondary school girls have had at least one previous pregnancy; 150 out of every 1000 women who give birth are 19 years old and under; over 60% of patients in Nigerian hospitals with abortion complications are adolescent girls; abortion complications account for 75% of all deaths among young girls under the age of 19 years and 50% of the deaths in Nigeria's high maternal mortality rate are adolescent girls. We are aware that these problems exist in all societies except that the level of occurrence differ from place to place.
As we have found in the four years of executing GPI programmes, girls in our society lack basic knowledge and information about the structure and functions of their body as well as their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The majority of the girls do not recognize disease symptoms, nor do they know when their rights are violated. In addition, girls face very serious risks to their health through unsafe practices arising from misconceptions about health matters. They not only practice these misconceptions; they also circulate them. For example, the GPI girls in one group were asked about how they solve the problem of contraceptives and unintended pregnancies. In response, they came up with the list of what adolescent girls, who are sexually active, do to prevent teenage pregnancy or to procure abortion where fertilization has already occurred. The long list includes: taking tablets of Menstrogen; drinking overdose of Andrews Liver Salt; drinking capsules of tetracycline with lime (freshly squeezed lime juice); mixture of lime and alcoholic spirit drinks like whisky; taking quinine tablets, drinking stout beer, taking Chloroquine (drug meant for malaria); taking mixture of salt and lime, taking a mixture of aspirin (analgetic) and spirit drink; and taking a concoction of herbs; etc. Little wonder that hospital record of abortion complications is 60%. Indeed, when unreported or fatal cases are added the figure may rise up to 80%.
Beyond misconceptions, there is also the dominant patriarchal values as well as religious injunctions that have negative influences on girls' perceptions of their rights. For instance, when a class of newly registered girls in GPI were asked about their views on abortion, their responses included: abortion kills; it reduces the number of children you are supposed to have, you can lose your womb through abortion; it leads to infection; you can bleed to death; beautiful women fade if they abort; it is a secret way of killing; it is murder; it is a sinful act; it is a sin for health service providers; only spoiled girls abort; women's second name; it makes one infertile; it washes all your eggs away; it makes one look older; it makes one look ugly; it reduces the breast; etc.
Rape is also of high occurrence in Nigeria and the victims are mostly girls between ages 9 and 18, although all ages are vulnerable. Like in many countries most of the rape cases in Nigeria are unreported. This is largely due to the social prejudices against women, and unequal power relations between male and female, and the ignorant acceptance by women of a position of subservience. For example, when some of our girls were asked why the crime of rape is committed, their answers included: some girls collect money from men and refuse to go to their houses; when girls refuse to make friends with males that ask them; because of how girls dress to attract males; because some girls walk around at night; because when girls say no, they mean yes; because some girls play hard to get; etc.
Many rape cases have been reported to us. In one case a girl came for counselling and support after being raped. She lives in the same neighborhood with a boy of about her age, 17 years, from whom she borrows video cassettes. On one occasion the boy asked her to come later in the day as the said cassette (according to him) had been borrowed by another friend who promised to return it that day. The girl went back. As soon as she passed through the door, the boy locked the door and raped her, and he forced her to drink a concoction he prepared from lime and limestone. She reported at the centre with excruciating pains in her lower abdomen.
There is also very high number of school dropouts among adolescent girls, particularly at the secondary school level (high school). This results partly from poverty -- the inability of the parents to meet the increasingly high cost of education -- and partly from teenage pregnancy.
In a study of 127 pregnant school girls, 52% were expelled from school, 20% were too ashamed to return to school, 15% would not return because their parents refused to pay their fees, and 8% were forced to marry.
GPI exists to give sexuality education to young girls and build their capacity to make informed choices, set their values and goals and aspire to accomplish same.
Therefore there is a high level of early sexual activity among adolescent girls. In a condition of inadequate contraceptive information or services, lack of necessary information required to empower girls to make the right choices, they end up becoming teen mothers. In the predominantly Muslim communities of Northern Nigeria, the problem is that of early marriage resulting in early child-birth with its complications. In the predominantly Christian southern communities where GPI is located, many unmarried teenagers become teen mothers by the age of 15. Hence, the number of girls who end up poor and exploited, not having acquired adequate education to get good jobs, keeps on rising. Furthermore, early child bearing results in large families of children that also end up poor and ignorant given the poor parental background.
Many young girls are forced by circumstances of poverty to hawk wares along the streets when they should be in schools. This situation constitutes a risk to their health and rights by exposing them to sexual harassment, rape, teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion.
After a lesson on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) a GPI girl brought her sister, a girl of 11, for counselling. The girl had been hawking whatever commodity is in season for the mother and had been sexually harassed and raped. She came with copious vaginal discharges and had to be referred to a clinic after Counselling. She has since registered with GPI.
Abortion is very restricted in Nigeria, being legal only in cases where the life of the woman is in danger. Thus, women who can afford the high cost of safe abortion in private clinics do so. But most teenagers resort to back-street abortion services with all the attendant risks and complications. A 17 year old girl came for counselling over vaginal itches. She was referred to a clinic. It turned out she was also pregnant. She was counselled and encouraged to talk to the boyfriend to assist with the bill for safe abortion. She reported back two weeks later that the boyfriend claimed he could not afford the amount charged by the clinic but took her to a quack where the abortion was performed at a cost he could afford. She reported to us with fever and lower abdominal pains - probable case of pelvic inflammatory infection.
There is also very poor communication between parents and adolescent girls in particular about their sexuality. A GPI girl met a 12-year old girl crying and, on enquiry, she found that the problem was that the girl was having her first menstruation. Said the girl, "Blood has been coming out of my private part since yesterday." The GPI girl educated the girl about menstruation and encouraged the girl to tell her mother. The girl refused, saying, "No she will kill me. She will think that I had been playing with boys." The GPI girl volunteered to go with the girl to talk to the mother. As predicted, the girl's mother threatened hell fire and tried to beat up the girl for daring to indulge in sexual activity. For the mother, age 12 was too early for menarche. After all, she started, like many girls, at age 15. The GPI girl talked to both mother and daughter about variation in the onset of puberty and how normal it was that the girl had her menarche at age 12. She further advised the girl's mother to buy sanitary pads for her rather than use toilet tissue, the disadvantages of which she explained to both mother and daughter.
HOW HAS GPI ADDRESSED THE PROBLEMS FACED BY NIGERIAN ADOLESCENT GIRLS?
The strategies GPI has adopted to address these problems include:
MAJOR ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
School-based outreach discussions also using defined curriculum to address girls' needs. At both the centre and outreach, fact sheets are regularly produced and photocopies of relevant materials made and given to the participants. Such expenses have been supported by funds from IWHC.
Quarterly Newsletters (the GP) are produced and circulated to girls to help develop their writing skills and to reach out to other adolescent girls that are neither in the centre-based nor in the school-based GPI activities.
Library services are offered at the two centres (Calabar ad Benin City) for the education of staff, participating adolescent girls, and the public at large.
Counselling, support and referrals are given to girls seeking such services. In many cases, the girls cannot afford to meet the cost of hospital tests and treatment and so turn to GPI for help.
Skill training for economic empowerment are offered to the girls.
Parents, teachers and guardians fora have been organized to create and sustain their awareness, interest and support for the girls as they change behaviours and attitudes and become more assertive in matters of their health and rights.
Public education, seminars and workshops.
IMPACT OF GPI'S WORK: SOME EXAMPLES
A girl was returning from a GPI meeting and a boy stopped her nicely and said, "Hello, I am Tony Jackson, May I know you?" The GPI girl replied, "Oh, I am Tony Blackson. How are you?" The boy asked, "Do you leave around here?" She replied, "No. I am coming from a GPI meeting." "Ah, no wonder you are so bold. You GPI girls play tricks on men. Where would you people find husbands? You think you know too much and so you play hard to get!" retorted the boy. The girl kept her cool and politely said, "Thank you for appreciating that we have the right to choose who we want to relate with. As for marriage, it is not compulsory. It is a matter of choice."
Some boys, along the street where a GPI girl lives, have been making passes at her. She refused all their advances. They got talking and got to know she had refused them all. They planned to harass her. One day, as she walked past, they stopped her and said that they found out that she was a lesbian which explained why she rejected their advances. She calmly told them that she was in fact a bisexual, having learned about sexual orientation in GPI. They, of course, did not know what being bisexual was. That was an opportunity which the GPI girl used to educate them on sexual orientation and on women's rights.
We have attained a level of confidence and trust such that girls come to share their problems and seek counselling over issues of their sexual health such as itching, discharges and support over decision to seek abortion services.
There was the case of a GPI girl who finished high school and went to look for a job. She was invited for an interview after which the would-be boss invited her for a date as a condition for job offer. She told him that she believed she was intellectually qualified for the job and made it clear that she felt insulted by the attempt at sexual harassment for a job offer. She then wrote her address and dropped it on the man's desk in case he learned his lesson and would wish to offer the job without any strings or insinuation of sexual relationship.
In executing the programme of GPI, we have faced some challenges.
These include:
OPPORTUNITIES/ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR GPI'S ACTIVITIES
Perhaps I can stop here hoping that I have given you a fair idea of what GPI is doing. I thank you all for your presence, patience and attention. My thanks and appreciation also go to IWHC who made my trip to USA possible as well as arranging this forum and giving me this opportunity to share GPI's experiences with this impressive assembly.
I thank you all.
BENE E.MADUNAGU
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