Enlightenment or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs but the recognition of what already is.” – Alan Watts. “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.” – James Thurber. Enlightenment and awareness cannot be overemphasized.
The recent news, happenings and development have been rather disheartening and altogether heartbreaking. The statistics of rape and it’s related seem to be on the increase and bad enough victims get blamed. While we won’t rule out the fact that the world is polluted, we also know how far too far will be the effect of neglect or less awareness as part of the cause of this inhumane act.
On 27th May 2020, the day Nigeria is known to celebrate Children, the Cece Yara Foundation launched an App primarily developed and programmed to empower children, youths and adults with relevant resources, skill and knowledge required to curb the increasing rate of child sexual abuse and violence in Nigeria.
The Cece Yara Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 2016 primarily focused on children and their vulnerabilities to prevent child sexual abuse and to provide access to care, information, protection and emergency intervention for children who have experienced sexual abuse or who are at its a risk.
Before now, the foundation provides free psycho-social, legal and medical support for children through a 24-hour free child telephone helpline (0800 800 8001) and its offline office, Advocacy Centre based in Gbagada, Lagos. The foundation has also organized outreaches on preventive measures for children and also educational programs directed to the adults on how to help children. The Foundation is made up of a multi-disciplinary team of counsellors, social workers, child advocates, lawyers and forensic interviewers who collaborated with each other as well as other helpful intermediaries to give an unbiased and all-round response to children and that, in the safest way.
On launching the Cece Yara Foundation App, the app was said to focus on spreading awareness about the likelihood of child sexual abuse and how to pinpoint suspects. It also avails a unique opportunity to access practical information that will provide proper guidance on how to identify, prevent it and also communicate via chat with professionals on the app for advice and help.
This App is designed for use by learned adults, parents, caregivers, guardians, youths and children who can make use of smartphones.
The App features Learning functions that allow users have access to quiz game involving obscure facts to test their knowledge of body boundaries, body private parts, assertive skills, safe and unsafe touches as well as who to report and how to report unsafe touches. It also includes The Cece Yara Safe kids Directory which is the very first child protection service portal in Nigeria. App users can search for the nearest child protection service provider including primary health centres, police stations, courts, child-centred NGO’s, and Government agencies in Lagos State. Users can find their exact location using Google maps and give step-by-step direction to find the provider navigating from the user’s present location.
The Cece Yara Foundation app is also built with a chat feature, which allows children to discuss freely with a professionally trained child counsellor about issues that bother them and report an incidence of unsafe touches without fear of being judged or reprimanded amongst many other helpful features and functions. Users can also make a direct report from the App by clicking on the “Make A Report” button.
The ultimate goal of the foundation is to be able to provide emergency intervention for any child within Lagos State and Abuja, while referral services are provided to reliable partners from our network for children in other parts of the country.
This is indeed a welcome development.
The Cece Yara Foundation app is now available for download on the Google Play Store through this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Mindkraft.TheCeceyaraApp
Also available on the Apple Store or via this link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-ceceyara-app/id1494565117
