The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, has applauded the First Lady of Ondo State, Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu- Akeredolu, for her giant strides in ensuring the passage of the VAPP law in the state, saying her good works and her passion has paved the way for lots of laudable initiatives in the state.
The UNFPA team led by the Head, Lagos Liaison Office, Dr Omolaso Omosehin, made these remarks while on a courtesy visit to the office of the First Lady to foster working relationships towards achieving some of their set goals for Ondo State.
Dr Omosehin, who said the team had been keenly following the activities of Mrs Akeredolu, noted among others that through her efforts, the state was able to pass the VAPP law create grassroots awareness programs on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence ( SGBV) while also supporting sexual assault survivors through the setting up of toll-free lines.
According to him, UNFPA is interested in women and girl-child empowerment while targeting areas of poverty alleviation, health, education and SGBV to help the state achieve its goals, just as he further noted that in terms of reproductive health of women and attainment of full potentials for the young people, UNFPA is seeking collaborative efforts with the government as it hopes to attain zero level GBV by 2030.
Some areas UNFPA is seeking support include funding of GBV Response Centre, scalping up of Sexual Assault Centre, provision of family support units to handle sexual assault cases, as well as the setting up of a Trust fund for survivors.
Others are the engagement of traditional rulers to tackle Female Genital Mutilation ( FGM), engagement of judiciary to implement VAPP law, implementation of Sexual Education Action Plan and payment of counterpart funding to facilitate projects, among others.
Responding, Mrs Akeredolu, while noting that most of the things she has achieved were through shared interest in human development, said her office reaches out to well-meaning citizens to facilitate most of her projects.
The wife of the Governor, while also using the opportunity to reel out some of her life-transforming initiatives like the BEMORE Empowered Initiatives that has trained over 2000 girls in ICT and other life-enhancing skills, called for support for the programme which will take place in Akure, Abuja and Uyo in the course of the year.
Story Credit: Tobiloba Fademi, SSA Media, office of the First Lady
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