REPORT OF THE FOR GIRLS ONLY PROGRAMME {F.G.O} HELD ON 14TH JUNE 2006 AT IKOSI HIGH SCHOOL.

“FOR GIRLS ONLY” organized its third seminar at Ikosi High School on 14th June 2006 for girls in both Junior and Senior School.

The program started at 10.00a.m with the registration of the girls and at 10.30a.m. The seminar commenced with an opening prayer.

ATTENDANCE:
An attendance of two hundred and forty-nine girls (249), a vice principal from Ikosi Junior High School and a teacher each from both schools.

RESULT AND FINDINGS.
A study was carried out on the awareness of HIV/AIDS and sexual abuse amongst the female students of Ikosi Junior and Senior High School. The sample population was 200(two hundred). Their ages range from 10-20 years.

In the study conducted, 100% of the sample population said they were aware of the disease while 94.5% knows that it damages the immune system.

84.5% of the sample population is aware that there is no known cure for the disease while 12.5% said there is a cure. As a result of the percentage that thinks there is a cure, awareness campaigns should be intensified.

18% of the sample population believes that the disease can be inflicted on people by witches/wizards while a larger percentage (85%) acknowledges that sexual contact is a major way of contacting the disease. This is quite encouraging but more work still needs to be done in educating the young ones about the various ways in which this disease can be contacted.

94% believes that HIV may eventually progress into AIDS while 65.5% believes that a person carrying the HIV virus may not fall sick in the space of 10 years.

To ascertain if they were aware of the means through which this disease could not be contacted, we asked if HIV/AIDS could be contacted through sharing of clothes; 68% gave a negative response, 28.5% believes it could be contacted through this means while 3.5% were not sure.

78% of the sample population is of the opinion that you cannot detect a person carrying the virus by merely looking at them while 18% said it is possible to know a person living with HIV/AIDS by looking at them.

88% of the girls have not been screened for HIV/AIDS while 8.5% have been screened. The reason being that only 7.5% of the girls are sexually active while 88% have not been involved in sexual acts.

On whether they would continue their friendship with a friend who is diagnosed with the disease, 53.3% said they would continue the friendship, 43.5% said they would end it while 3% were not sure of what they would do. This result reflects the mindset prevalent in the larger population regarding people with HIV/AIDS status.

14.5% of the sample population was of the opinion that persons living with HIV/AIDS should be killed so as to prevent the virus from spreading while 82% didn’t think that was necessary.

Only 10% of the sample population knows persons living with HIV/AIDS while 84.5% do not know anyone living with the disease.

On whether any close relative has made any sexual advances towards them, 8% of the girls said yes while the remaining 92% said they had never been in such situations.

58.5% of the girls also believed that when someone of the opposite sex gave them gifts, he had ulterior motives while 34.5% didn’t agree with that notion.

3.5% of the girls said they had been forced by family members(male) to engage in sexual acts while 95.5% said they had never been forced by any male relative to have sex.

2.5% of the girls also acknowledged that they have been raped and this was usually done by close relatives, 66% said they had not had such experience while 31% gave no response.

A large number of the girls said they had never been attracted to a female sexually and they were represented by 68.5%, 3.5% said they have been sexually attracted to a female and even engaged in sexual acts while 28% of them gave no response.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Questions were asked by a good number of students and justified answers were given by the facilitators.

For Girls' Only, a subsidiary of The Real Woman Foundation has the following core objectives:

1. To prepare girls in secondary schools for their future with respect to avoiding abuse and rejection.
2. To educate them on how to groom themselves so as to have healthy self esteem, good etiquette and also maintain a healthy hygiene.
3. To teach them how they can live balanced healthy and emotional lives, so as to become nation builders.

Topic under discussions are:
1.HIV/AIDS.
2. Sexual abuse.
3. Personal Hygiene.
4. Power of choice.
5. Etiquette