Women's Rights And Health Project (WRAHP) has embarked on rescue training for teenagers in Ebonyi State, guiding them on how to overcome "Technology Facilitated Sexual and Gender Base Violence, SGBV."
Speaking during one-day training on the technology facilitated SGBV for young people at Abakaliki, the WRAHP State Programme Officer, Dr Sarah Chima explained that the organisation decided to select seven secondary schools and one tertiary institution - Ebonyi State University to be a part of the awareness drilling against online motivated crimes.
She described WRAHP as an innovative, nongovernmental and nonprofit organisation that promotes the health and general development of women, young people and communities using the rights-based approach.
She identified online societal fads are posing a lot of negative effects on people especially teenagers and expressed optimism that the training would help extensively in curtailing technology-motivated SGBV and other cyber crimes.
Explaining further why school teenagers dominated the beneficiaries of the training, Dr Chima described the students as the most vulnerable of the online-related SGBV.
"We discovered that technology-motivated sexual and gender-based violence has posed a great threat to people, especially the young ones. The essence of this programme is to train the young people, create awareness of the technology SGBV and direct them on the way out of the menace.
"These young school children are vastly the vulnerable ones because, most times, they find it difficult to hide from the technology menaces."
Also, the State GBV Coordinator and the Programme Facilitator, Barrister Faithvin Nwanchor confirmed that technology-facilitated SGBV affect most young people.
She lamented the high rate of cyber crimes posing threats against young people unknowingly and expressed optimism that the training programme would assist the beneficiaries to bypass becoming technology-facilitated crime victims.
Barrister Nwanchor said, "There are a lot of cyber crimes, coming up against young people who are unknowingly falling victims and most times result in taking their lives. A lot of people suffer ill mental health today as a result of throwing themselves into social media issues.
"We came here today to tell them that they can save themselves from these technology-facilitated menaces. When it eventually happens, they can know what to do by telling people who can save them.
"We brought to them, the preventive measures against online related crimes including hacking, sex chatting, and other cyber-criminal activities. If one falls into problems of technology-facilitated SGBV, he or she should open up, because the GBV task force can intervene for them."
The beneficiaries, Emmanuel Ereke of Abakaliki High School Presco, Precious Nwakpa of Annunciation Secondary School, Kpirikpiri Abakaliki, Nnenna Nwedeoga of Holy Child International Academy Abakaliki, Udeh Abigail of Beloved Anthonia Standard Schools among others commended the organisers of the programme, saying that they had learnt how to navigate the online world safely, recognise and avoid potential risks and respond promptly to abusive situations.
The students noted that the programme taught them to be disciplined about their various engagements on social media platforms, being very selective about the sites to visit and the messages attached; by giving priority to the health and educational messages that add value to life, among others.
