Stemming the scourge of cancer among school girls

It has been acknowledged that increased attention to the health and wellbeing of the adolescent girl, including her sexual and reproductive health is a necessary condition for success in any given society. So many factors are identified as impediments to the fair competitiveness of the girl child with her boy peer, not because the girl […]

It has been acknowledged that increased attention to the health and wellbeing of the adolescent girl, including her sexual and reproductive health is a necessary condition for success in any given society.
So many factors are identified as impediments to the fair competitiveness of the girl child with her boy peer, not because the girl child is not as endowed as her boy peer but because the way nature has moulded her and the way the society sees her make her more susceptible to different forms of abuses, intimidation and sexual and reproductive health concerns.
It is in line with this assertion that the wife of the Governor of Kwara State and founder, LEAH Foundation, Deaconess Omolewa Ahmed, at the commemoration of the 2015 United Nations International Day of the Girl Child brought to the fore the need to intensify efforts to ascertain that the adolescent girl is listened to, identified with and given her right of place.
According to Deaconess Ahmed, this will assist the girl child to maximise her God-given potentials. The theme for this year’s event is ‘The Power of the Adolescent Girl’.
The LEAH Foundation founder during the International Day of the Girl Child commemorative event, assembled seasoned resource persons to guide the budding women on how best to conduct themselves when faced with challenges and how not to be submissive in the face of any kind of abuse, even as the experts pointed out that their rights are enshrined in the laws of Nigeria (Child Rights Act 2003 Nig. 2006 Kw.)
Also, grooming the young girls to be enviable mothers of tomorrow brought to the fore sexual and reproductive health concerns as the LEAH Foundation founder used the occasion to admonish the girls to abstain from any form of premarital sex, observing that early exposure to sex is always accompanied with risks that could even cut one’s blossoming life short.
It is this view that necessitated the move to keep the girl child abreast of the menace of breast and cervical cancer.
This led to the inauguration of the LEAH Cancer School Club for girls in secondary schools across the state. A total of 57 secondary schools are the first beneficiaries to be used as pilot for the scheme which is  aimed at, over time, covering more schools once the pilot shows positive results.
Curbing cervical cancer entails getting young people informed of its existence and how it develops – though a vaccine exists for it but not readily available in this clime – hence the need to intensify awareness about the disease among the younger folk.
The club became imperative, thereby making the cancer school club initiative of the LEAH Foundation timely, as due awareness and inclusive participation of these young girls would help nip this in the bud.
The LEAH Cancer Club will enable the girls know their status and also provide a platform for the girls to get counseling from professionals on matters affecting them while the club would also afford the girls the opportunity to involve their friends in the drive to stem the scourge of breast and cervical cancer.
The cancer school club initiative of LEAH Foundation had earlier taken the crusade to the University of Ilorin where, at the instance of the vice chancellor, the institution’s clinic created a screening space for the team from LEAH to screen the young women studying in the institution.
It was also posited that when screening of breast and cervical cancer is taken seriously we are already paving the way to its extinction, as early detection stands to be the best measure to checkmate the menace .
Speaking during a courtesy call the LEAH Team paid him in his office, the vice chancellor, represented by Professor Sidikat Ijaiya commended the foundation for the initiative and also expressed the institution’s readiness to partner with the foundation while calling for more sensitisation in the fight against cancer.
In her remarks at the inauguration of the LEAH Cancer Club at the University of Ilorin auditorium, the Vice President of the Students Union,  Comrade Imam Umulkhaeri, pointed out that the university is the first to host a campaign against breast and cervical cancer.
She said: “That the students union is coming out for the first time to showcase absolute commitment to the wellbeing of female students and staff is amazing.”
It would be recalled that LEAH Foundation had over the years been a prominent player in the sensitisation and awareness campaigns aimed at getting people informed irrespective of their locations of the menace of cancer and how being abreast of their status through screening can help save their lives and ensure they indulge in healthy lifestyles.
This initiative has seen the foundation set up 28 functional basic screening centres spread across villages and city centres in Kwara with an advanced screening and diagnostic centre in Ilorin, the state capital.
The impact of this initiative will be far reaching only when governments, private organisations and public spirited individuals identify with it and to a large extent support it, it is only then that it will translate to the goal it was conceived to achieve, which is ensuring the overall wellbeing of the Nigerian woman.