Press Release
UNFPA on Standby to Provide Psychosocial Support, Reproductive Health Care to Just-Freed Chibok Girls
08 May 2017
UNITED NATIONS, New York/Abuja—UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, welcomes the release of an additional 82 Chibok girls who were abducted by the Boko Haram group, and is on standby to provide emergency reproductive health care, psychosocial counselling and other critical support to the survivors.
In partnership with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, UNFPA continues to support women and girls who are survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. For the newly released Chibok girls, UNFPA has deployed an emergency team of psychosocial counsellors and health professionals to assist with the profiling of the girls, so their critical needs can be met.
The newly-released girls will also be part of a similar rehabilitation programme that was set up for the 21 Chibok girls who were released in October 2016. The programme is tailor-made to meet each girl’s specific needs of counselling, to help overcome the trauma endured after being held under captivity for more than three years. The programme includes, among others, access to quality education to bridge the learning gap created during the abduction, access to reproductive health care for their sexual well-being and rehabilitation support, and a skills-acquisition programme to ease their re-integration into their society.
Since the start of the insurgency in the North-East of Nigeria, 6 in 10 girls are reported to have experienced a form of gender-based violence, and many have limited access to sexual and reproductive health care. UNFPA and partners have provided direct prevention and response services to 200,000 women and girls who are survivors or at risk of gender-based violence, through its ‘safe spaces’ and community outreach. More than 3.5 million survivors have been reached with sexual and reproductive health care services, psychosocial support and counselling.
For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
In New York: Omar Gharzeddine, +1 212 297 5028, gharzeddine@unfpa.org
In Abuja: Lolade Johnson, Tel.: +234 705 111 1200, odaniel@unfpa.org
Kori Habib Tel.: Tel.: +234 803 450 0016, habib@unfpa.org
