Mothers should be vigilant to curtail rape cases – Fatima Ramalan Yero

Can you tell us about yourself?I was born in the 80s .I attended primary school in the United Kingdom,  I attended secondary school in Zaria, after which  I went for National Certificate of Education,(NCE). As the first lady of Kaduna State, do you have any project  that has to do with women and children?Yes, as […]

Can you tell us about yourself?
I was born in the 80s .I attended primary school in the United Kingdom,  I attended secondary school in Zaria, after which  I went for National Certificate of Education,(NCE).

As the first lady of Kaduna State, do you have any project  that has to do with women and children?
Yes, as any first lady would, I have a project in the pipeline aiming at improvement of the lives of women, youth and children.

What sort of project is it?
It is a project that encompasses a lot. For example it includes an aspect that has to do with the health of women and children such as maternal and infant mortality.
 Many women and children die through these, so a lot need to be done. It is something I am very concerned about.
Women should be encouraged to attend ante natal clinics and take their children for immunisation.
There is also the empowerment of our youth to keep them from being idle, as a result of which they would be used as instruments of violence. It may also lead some of them into taking drugs, making them become useless to themselves and the society.
Besides, apart from keeping them from being idle, they would get a source of income and therefore become self reliant. It is better to engage our youth in doing something positive, as they are the leaders of tomorrow.
However, the project is a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) and has nothing to do with the government. It is just there to support the government’s effort to improve the lives of women, youth and children.
But even apart from the project I have trained women and youth on skill acquisition. I also have a radio programme, called ‘Hannu da Yawa’, which aims at knowing the problems of women and youth. Through this we would know how to tackle such problems.

The girl-child is someone who is vulnerable in many ways, what plans do you have specifically for her?
I have a lot of plans for the girl-child, especially on ICT for girls. I have a project that I will carry out insha Allah before the end of this year.
The percentage of girls that are out of school is high, there is a lot of gap between boys and girls, so I intend to focus on ICT for girls and see how it goes.
The girl-child needs to be educated and empowered. In the world today, we can’t afford to have uneducated women. If women are educated, they are in a better position to look after their children and even help them with their homework.
They  can also  contribute to the development of the society by using their education.

Widows are people that the society tends to neglect, leaving them to fend for themselves and their children, what do you have for them in your project?
Widows are part and parcel of this project. They are women too and it focuses on all the women in any category. Widows are a special case that deserves special attention, so also are orphans who are there too.
The widows will gain a lot from the project by the grace of God.

There are rampant cases of rape; some victims are as young as two-years old, what advice would you give parents in taking measures against it?
It is very sad and disheartening for parents, especially mothers for two-three years old to be raped. This is very disgusting for any mother to even think about.
As a mother I believe we have to take very good care of our children, both the  boys and girls. We need to know their whereabouts, the people they are close to, how they interact with males in the house.
Some parents neglect their children and don’t know where their small children are, some children spend many hours without their mothers trying to find out where they are and with whom.
As mothers if we are vigilant enough, some of the rape cases can be curtailed.

You recently constructed modern toilets in primary schools, what has motivated you to do that?
The PADID Project, that is Prevention of Avoidable Death and Infectious Diseases has been something I have been considering for a very long time. Actually, the Handwashing Campaign was what we started with and that campaign has been in every first lady’s office for some time. And in Kaduna there was already the issue of the Handwashing Campaign from my predecessor, but we just gave it a little boost.
We constructed the toilets to see how our children can get access to washing their hands. We want to encourage sanitation.  It has proven to be a very productive idea and the children are making  good use of the facilities provided for them, and as such we hope to continue.
We hope to expand to all the 23 local government areas of Kaduna State.