Sugar daddies are putting Nigerian adolescent girls at high risk of unwanted pregnancy and the HIV.
Safe Love International has launched a “No Sugar Daddy” campaign targeted at the Nigerian girl-child, particularly those at a high risk of unwanted pregnancy and HIV/AIDS.
According to the initiative, adolescent girls are more vulnerable to falling victim of inter-generational sex due to the high rate of poverty, lack of mental capacity or ability to negotiate safer sex.
The new campaign will feature short (30 minutes-long) interactive discussions in schools, markets and on the street. Through these, the campaign hopes to improve the risk perception of the Nigerian adolescent child.
This program has already been introduced initiated in six other African countries. In Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja, about 10,000 adolescents have been reached.
The conveners revealed that 1 out of 3 girls in school in the northern part of Nigeria has been a victim of teenage pregnancy which has led to a high rate of school drop-out. The next destination for the launch of the campaign is in Rivers State.
Founder of the initiative, Sandara Omo Idugboe, noted that due to the limited mental capacity of a teen, older men tend to abuse and take advantage of them.
“The mission of the program is not just to reduce the wide spread of HIV/AIDS by 28% annually, but also to firmly induce the implementation of sexual abuse laws by bringing the abusers to justice,” she added.