The Girls’ Brigade has held its 8th Africa Leaders Conference and 2nd Girls’ Gathering to mark its 25th anniversary celebration and official opening since the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 which disrupted its earlier planned conference.
The ongoing African Conference, AFCON, is themed: “Pressing on towards the Goal”, while the Girls’ gathering is themed: “Rooted in Mission to Transform my Generation.” The event which gathers leaders and girls from various countries, spans from July 29 – August 5.
Speaking at the ongoing conference in Abuja on Sunday, the International President, Priscilla Penny said the Girls’ Brigade mentors, develops and empowers girls against issues and social vices affecting them.
She said, “Our aim is to develop girls holistically – physically, socially, spiritually, and on education, we give them life skills. So the sole purpose of the girls’ brigade is the development and empowerment of the girl child against issues affecting girls today.
“The girls’ brigade is passionate about seeing that the issues of child abuse, human trafficking and child marriage are addressed.”
Penny remarked that the Girls Brigade equips girls through its awareness programs for them to identify child abuse, identify human trafficking so that they’re not launched into it.
She said as an international body, the nongovernmental organization in 2020, collaborated with UN Women in an event at the United Nations to talk about young women and gender-based violence, “where the young women shared about gender-based violence, their perspective and what the church and government can do in order to empower girls.
“In 2022, we also hosted an event in collaboration with the United Nations where we talked about climate change, because the world that we are living in is affected by climate change. We had girls from the Pacific, from the Caribbean and the Americas sharing their experiences with the hurricanes and what it meant for the girl child.
“And as they, as girls begin as an organization, we want to be there where the girl child is, should there be disasters. We know that young women and girls are the most vulnerable. So we want to be there with emotional support, and financial support, if we can afford it. So those are some of the things that we do to empower our girl child,” the international president added.
On her part, the African President and Fellowship Chairperson, Aruk Omori stated that in tandem with the theme of the conference, the leaders are pressing on towards the goal on how to train the younger ones, while they are rooting to be alive to change their generation.
She added that at the end of the conference, they pray that God should speak to them.
“Spiritually, we need the girls to go home, filled with the Holy Spirit of God in them, and we have some change.
“We have some trade we are going to teach them: like how to make perfume, so that at the end of the day, by the time they go home, some of them can use whatever they are being taught here to start life as entrepreneurs
Furthermore, the immediate-past President of Girls Brigade and Chairman planning committee of the AFCON and the Girls’ Gathering, Magdalene Apeh noted that the event was supposed to have 12, but due to negligence from the Nigerian Embassy in some of the countries in approving visas, logistics issues and the economic downturn bedevilling many African countries, only eight countries were in attendance.
She called on the new administration of President Bola Tinubu to render its support to the organisation to support its activities like the organisation had enjoyed in the past from the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.
Adding her voice, the Africa Millennium Ambassador, Esther Dauda highlighted one of the four-square programs of the organisation; service, stating that the girls are taught the need to render selfless services ranging from visits to prisons, hospitals and outreaches to orphanages.
She also called on the government to support the organisation’s programs to empower the girls, as well as absorb them where there are profitable opportunities.
