No fewer than 120 young boys were on Sunday trained by an Enugu-based Non Governmental Organisation, Boys Champions (BC), on how to end Gender-Based Violence (GBV) against girls and women.
BC is a non-profit organisation that leverages mentorship, sports, education, peace building and empathy to empower boys, founded by the United Nation award-winning Nigeria, Noel Alumona, in 2018.
Addressing the boys who were drawn from different schools in Enugu State, a Team Member of BC, Chukwunonso Okolo, said the mentorship training was aimed at making young people better people in the society and teaching them how to respect girls and women.
He added that the training would help to raise responsible boys and men who would take actions to end violence against women and girls.
According to Okolo, the training will further reshape boys thinking of dominance and superiority over girls.
“We are actually making them to understand that both sexes can actually coexist and still achieve their dreams in life without suppressing the other because of their gender.
“We want to fix the society by mentoring these boys on the danger of GBV as we believed that fixing the boys will make the society a better place.
“We want them to understand there is no competition among boys and girls and this will make them not to hit their wives when they marry,” he said.
Okolo explained that the project focused on boys, stressing “if they are fixed, GBV would be minimized.
“So today, we are training about 120 boys from different schools in Enugu and it is going to be an interactive session as they will be allowed to ask basic questions and their perception on gender equality,” he said.
He said that the founder had it rough which made him to share his experience to help younger ones.
“If you know him very well, whatever we are doing at BC it’s actually his life story,” he added.
Taking the boys on the topic “Guys vs Girls: Building Healthy Relationship,” a BC Facilitator, Onyekachukwu Asado, said there was nothing wrong for boys relating to girls if they do it right.
He said that things that kept him and family going was those things he learnt while growing, urging them not to claim superiority over their girlfriends.
A participant, Michael Omotayo from the Good Shepherd Anglican Secondary School, commended the organisers, saying the experience he gathered would help him in treating women well.
“I learnt that both genders are equal,” he said.
