In a bid to protect vulnerable children and promote their wellbeing, Beulah World Initiative (BWI), within the week, held its August outreach at Ijamido Children’s Home, an orphanage centre in Ota, Ogun State.
The BWI team sensitized the children on Child Sexual Molestation Awareness and Prevention, Mathematics Appreciation, practical tips on health and hygiene and also presented them with food items and toiletries.
The outreach, which combined education, counseling, and interactive sessions, sought to sensitise the children with knowledge to recognise, resist, and report abuses, while also encouraging them to embrace healthy habits such as proper hand washing, personal hygiene, and balanced nutrition as part of their daily lives.
The outreach went beyond just a talk, it created a safe space where the children could listen, ask questions, and laugh together while learning how to protect themselves and care for their bodies.
From spotting warning signs of abuse to practicing everyday hygiene, the sessions were designed to leave lasting impressions that would help the children grow with confidence and good health.
The outreach also had a Mathematics Appreciation Programme (MAP) which was an interactive session with the children on basic arithmetic and numerical puzzles, aimed at kindling the interest of the children in Mathematics and STEM education.
Ms Chichi Ononiwu, the Founder and Coordinator of BWI, in her remarks decried the rising incidences of sexual molestation across communities.
She said: “Those who are likely to traumatize others are victims of trauma.”
She further implored the children to be sensitive and to say no to secrets if they are ever faced with or are victims of sexual molestation because that is one of the tactics employed by abusers, and advised them to keep talking until they get help.
Furthermore, Ononiwu explained: “Statistics show that early involvement in sexual activities stunt an individual’s intellectual capacity.
Ms Ononiwu added that the purpose of the outreach is to impact the children’s lives, because BWI has a lot to do with the youths, and the change that we desire in this generation must begin with the youths.”
“Our aim is to groom the younger generation to be able to cover the gaps that we see everywhere in leadership. So, we must start impacting them early. This isn’t our first time here, we have been here a number of times before, but for over a year now, we have not been able to visit until today.”
She explained that BWI piloted the Mathematics Appreciation Programme after noticing that the children lacked interest in Mathematics and the response at the event shows great improvement.
According to her, “At the initial stage, if you ask them any questions in mathematics, or who likes mathematics? they would just be looking at you. But with time, we noticed it was having an impact and the children were beginning to love mathematics.”
Speaking about the Child Sexual Molestation and Prevention Campaign, she said it was a clear divine instruction to help these kids and enlighten them on the different tactics that predators use to take advantage of them sexually and exploit them,” she said.
Talking about plans for the final quarter of the year, Ononiwu said there are activities lined up; “For instance, there’ll be full medical outreach in Ogba, Ikeja , Lagos, in September, which will feature medical consultations, eye tests and treatment as well as dispensing of reading glasses; blood tests for Malaria, HIV, Blood Sugar, Genotype and many more. Free Medications will also be administered to treat them as well.
“We also give out food items which is why we call our outreaches Medical and Food Outreaches. We give out food items to certain demography of people which include widows and the elderly, from 65 and above,” she said.
A member of the BWI Team, Mr. Theophilus Nang, who is also a PhD. student at Covenant University, also talked to the Children on maintaining good health, hygiene and safety practices essential for living healthy in their everyday life.
Speaking on the importance of educating the Children about hygiene and health, Nang highlighted how health is a problem in so many communities even for people who have the means and are capable of providing for themselves.
He added, “Healthcare is very essential because as people say, prevention is better than cure. But in the case of orphanages, it’s very important because they are a kind of vulnerable population because they don’t have their parents who can guide them on certain things.
“They depend on people out there who have the will to help them. I think it’s something to appreciate BWI for holding this outreach,” he said.
Nang advised that people should not rely on medications, they should not rely on hospitals, they should rely on preventive practices because that’s the cheapest way in which they don’t need to spend.
“You don’t need to pay huge sums of money to know that you need to wash your hands before eating. You don’t need to find yourself in the hospital to be taught by a Doctor that you need to wear clean clothes that you need to eat healthy, you don’t need to eat food that isn’t well cooked. These things are actually very good to prevent a lot of diseases, let us learn how to maintain our health by ourselves and always seek assistance when we need it,” he added.
Mrs Stella Willoughby, the Executive Secretary of Ijamido Homes who talked about the vision and mission of the Orphanage home said, “The mission of this place, our vision is to be of service to humanity, to take care of the vulnerable in the society, not just children, but children majorly and other members of the society who need our help.”
Talking about the importance of the discourse of the day on Child safety and sexual safety Willoughby said it’s a crucial topic and it is one they address within themselves and they also invite people from outside to come and talk to the children on it .
She added that there has been positive feedback from the children about the topic and they enjoy it. “I can assure you that in this home, there is zero tolerance to any sexual abuse or any kind of touch that is inappropriate.”
“It doesn’t even happen because from time to time we keep talking to them, even when they are in school we tell them how to behave in the school, the ethics of life and all that. So there is zero tolerance for anything like that.”
The BWI team presented food items and welfare materials to the orphanage to reinforce their commitment, not just to educate the children, but to also support their daily needs and spread kindness through practical care.
