Posted by By UJA EMMANUEL, Maiduguri on
Josephine Habba, Coordinator of Jiveh Foundation, has passion for children.
Josephine Habba, Coordinator of Jiveh Foundation, has passion for children. She wants them to be brought up well under the watchful eyes of their fathers and mothers. This explains why she is literally waging a war against single parenthood in a subtle way.
Believing that women are always the victims of single parentage, Habba is of the opinion that girls should be given sex education at home so that they would know the implications of premarital sex.
Habba told Daily Sun that Jiveh Foundation is interested in training children in orphanages, explaining why it is against their adoption by foreigners whom, she fears, could use them as slaves. She spoke about other things
Involvement in child maintenance
I develop interest in issues relating to single parentage and child maintenance basically as a result of my being a single parent. I had a bitter experience as a single parent, that is why I have taken my time, money and energy to make life meaningful for single parents and children.
Experience
My experience so far is wonderful because since we came on board, we tried a lot of things. One of my landmark advocacy is now before the Benue State House of Assembly on the legitimacy of children born out of wedlock.
Sex education
When you have a child who does not know what sex education is, there is the tendency that she may one day find herself in a difficult situation. If you have a daughter, educate her on the issue of sex. If not, she can be deceived. It is even worse if she is in a school where she can't also be taught sex education.
If girls are not taught sex education, what they may learn from the wrong people is to sleep with the opposite sex. They may not know what sleeping with men brings about. I think it is a fundamental problem from the family.
The first thing young people know now is "I love you." The second is "kiss me," then "sleep with me." All these lead to pregnancy and unwanted babies. If we take sex education seriously, we tackle single parentage, which my organisation is seriously fighting against.
Problem of poverty
Poverty works hand in hand with all the issues that I have said here, whether it is HIV/AIDS, single parentage, abandoned babies. They have one thing in common.
If you handle poverty in this country, then all other problems, like HIV/AID and child abandonment may end.
What we are trying to do is to empower single parents so that they can be skilled and be able to do things themselves. When they are engaged in one thing or another, they will earn money to train their children.
Seminars and conferences
Through seminars, we bring to the fore the problems that single parents have. In such programmes, heart-warming testimonies are given by women who are passing through difficulties. And the awareness is so great that people are now beginning to understand the dangers of indiscriminate sex. In fact, some confessed that if they were enlightened as now, they could not have made the mistake of unwanted pregnancies.
Adoption of children
It is against the laws of Nigeria for foreigners to adopt children and take them abroad, because such children may be used for slavery. The government of Benue has a case at hand whereby some Americans adopted children from orphanages. The report has been lodged with us and we have taken the matter to the Benue State House of Assembly asking for intervention. Why give out children to strangers? Do you know what they may become tomorrow? Instead of giving them away for adoption by foreigners, why not train them here? This is what we have been doing. So far, we have trained about 20 orphans.