The sudden increase in the cases of RAPE in Nigeria is becoming rather alarming. Earlier this year when every family was still basking in the euphoria of crossing the hurdles of 2007, we woke up to the gory details of how men in the Northern part of the country RAPE innocent girls all in their search for HIV/AIDS cure.

Just come to think of it, how could anybody in their right senses think sleeping with a virgin could cure them of a disease? How callous could men be in this generation? As a matter of fact, it was not only the Girls family that suffered but people like me, who cherishes these young souls.

Kindly close your eyes for a second and open it. Probably, if you don’t know, then I will tell you, the number of HIV/AIDS victims just got increased by one hundred in your locality. Then are we going to fold our hands and watch this innocents souls die? Are we going to act as if they don’t belong to us, you better watch it.

That your pretty little girl; in the best Nursery School could be the next victim. Oh you don’t know then, I will tell you. What makes you think her teacher is an angel? Come off it, you think her uncle is just too nice. Then, better watch your back because someone is stealing your pretty angel innocence right in your home. So why cant we all join hands and fight against this demons in our midst.

I can hear you, you said why will you when you never had a child, then I have an answer for you, it could be your aunt’s child or YOU! Who says they don’t RAPE grown ups. Then, ask those who have been victims

A word from LEA, please join in the fight.

Violence against the GIRL-CHILD must stop because they grow up to be the woman we all talk about. If it cannot stop now, if we cannot stop today, who will stop it tomorrow?

The journey seems long, dark, stony and lonely. It was full of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Can you imagine it, Jan…, Feb…, Mar…, Apr…, May…, Jun…, Jul…, Aug…, Sep…, Oct…, Nov…, Dec.

It was a year that consumed souls but exempted myself and you.

Do you think we are better off than those who perished? Do you think we are better off than those who suffered?

Then let me ask us a very important question. What is the yardstick of existence? Do you know it?

Ooh, I can remember its Education. Ooh sorry it was a mistake, its wealth. Nay, it’s Exposure. Ooh I’m so sorry for the oversight it’s Location.

Friends, all these are not the answer. The simple truth is this, it’s GRACE and you know what? It’s the GRACE OF GOD.

I’m so happy for seeing your beautiful face in 2008. I do hope your eyes will see no evil, your ears will hear no evil and most especially, the Girl-Child will experience no EVIL!!!

Have a lovely year ahead.

You can imagine the look on my face the day I heard that guys too sleep with older women for money. Up till this moment that I’m writing this piece, it’s still one of the most disgusting news my ears have ever heard. Now, I want to ask, where is this generation heading to?.

Don’t misquote me, nothing is wrong with a younger guy marrying an older lady for love. It’s marriage as we all know but, in a situation where a guy just gets involved with a woman because of the monetary gain is bad. He becomes the madam sex tool. She calls him anytime she feels horny and he answers immediately. Oh my God, what a bad movie.

Can’t these guys just think? How can you become a tool in the hand of someone old enough to be your mother just because you are greedy? What sort of poverty or wretchedness can make you trade your ego, your pride?.

You know what, I will not support this act under any guise. It’s wrong and bad. It’s a slap on humanity. It’s a wrong route that will eventually lead to destruction. A word is enough for the wise.

The rate at which ladies in higher institution of learning now parade themselves as prostitutes and call-girl’s is very disturbing and pathetic. Little wonder when someone said this generation is a wasted one. I begin to wonder why a little girl, whose parents are striving to educate could descend so low as to sleep with men old enough to be her father. One funny point is that most of these girls got involved through peer pressure. They engage in sexual activities with men because of monetary gain. They always want to dress like every rich girl out there; they want to use the state-of-the-art things in school. Materials like jewelries, perfumes, clothes, shoes, bags, and anything you can think of can make them trade away their pride.

Nowadays, they don’t even care who is watching them. They throw caution into the air and even boast of it’s publicly. One surprising fact is that influential and wealthy ladies also practice this act. Then I begin to wonder why ladies like me, who should be proud of their womanhood turns around to insult this same womanhood. I wonder why parents and guardian are so involved in their pursuits of trivial things (Career, Money, Fame, e.t.c) that the home front is now in shamble. I wonder the kind of generation we are planning to build with this our dastardly act; I wonder where people could have thrown their conscience to.

I wish we can all rise up against this shameful act and live up to the expectation of a virtuous woman. I wish we can all shelve materialism and uphold our dignity. I wish we can all have a peaceful home.

The perpetrators of sexual abuse and harassment have now devised new ways of carrying out their dastardly acts. We have to be sincere with ourselves, gone are those days when these people can be recognized or discerned from afar but this days, they are just like every gentlemen and ladies out there. That is why LEA is preaching the gospel of Security, Consciousness and Alertness to every parents and guardians out there.

Let’s imagine a situation where a mother took her young child to the Crèche, Kindergarten or School without any premonition that the Teacher, Caretaker, Nanny, or Instructor is a child molester. What will happen? The young child will become an object of sexual abuse in the hand of the trusted teacher. Cases like this have come and gone without even the parents or guardian suspecting any foul play. Especially when the parents are career minded people.

Okay, let me give you one funny story I read in one of the national dailies in my country but, I cannot vouch for the truthfulness. There is a man who specializes in abusing young girls by deceiving them into the act. He went ahead to cut one of his trouser pocket and the other pocket is always stocked with sweet of different kinds. Each time he returned from work, these young girls will rush out of their homes to greet him and he will tell them to touch his monkey.

You know what he did? He will put his penis into the (cut pocket) and tell these small girls to touch it. He tells them and I quote him “I have a small monkey in my pocket and he needs to be touched. If you touch my monkey better I will give you large percentage of my sweet.” This act went on for along time without these girls parent suspecting any foul play. They thought the man was just being nice until a little family packed into the area with their only daughter. She was just five but she knew every parts of the body by their real names. He touched the monkey as other did and told the man that it was not a monkey but a penis. The man jacked her off, called her naughty and gave her no sweet. Then she told her mum everything that happened. That was how the bubble bursted.

There are lessons to be learnt from this short story and I will highlight them for us all.

 Watch that nice man or woman. He/She might be robbing your child(ren) of their innocence
 Don’t act too spiritual or holy by calling the sensitive parts of the body by fake names. Let your child(ren) know every part of their body by the real name
 Tell your child(ren) the functions of this parts of the body
 Don’t be too carefree or career minded and neglect your child(ren)
 Watch your child (ren) move.
 Be free with your child (ren) so that they can tell you everything hurting them

I know you too can still get some other points from the story to help keep your home intact.

Have a lovely day.

What is Sexual Abuse?

It is very difficult for most people to talk about sexual abuse and even more difficult for society as a whole to acknowledge that the sexual abuse of children of all ages -- including infants -- happens everyday in the United States. It is no an easy phenomenon to define, primarily because permissible childhood behavior varies in accordance with cultural, family and social tolerances. Sexual abuse, which is 10% of all substantiated cases of child abuse, is defined as the involvement of dependent, developmentally immature children in sexual activities that they do not fully comprehend and therefore to which they are unable to give informed consent and/or which violates the taboos of society.

Sexual Abuse is any misuse of a child for sexual pleasure or gratification. It has the potential to interfere with a child's normal, healthy development, both emotionally and physically. Often, sexually victimized children experience severe emotional disturbances from their own feelings of guilt and shame, as well as the feelings which society imposes on them.

At the extreme end of the spectrum, sexual abuse includes sexual intercourse and/or its deviations. These behaviors may be the final acts in a worsening pattern of sexual abuse. For this reason and because of their devastating effects, exhibitionism, fondling and any other sexual contact with children are also considered sexually abusive.

Nontouching sexual abuse offenses include:
» Indecent exposure/exhibitionism
» Exposing children to pornographic material
» Deliberately exposing a child to the act of sexual intercourse
» Masterbation in front of a child
Touching sexual offenses include:
» Fondling
» Making a child touch an adult's sexual organs
» Any penetration of a child's vagina or anus by an object that doesn't have a medical purpose
Sexual exploitation offenses include:
» Engaging a child for the purposes of prostitution
» Using a child to film, photograph or model pornography

Courtesy: National Exchange Club Foundation.

It’s not been very easy since I got back to school. Going through the registration process has been the most difficult aspect of it all. More reasons why I’ve been silent in the blog world. Maybe I did not tell you guys that I’m in my final year and that my project is my best friend now. That not withstanding, LEA is still in good shape. I believe in everybody out there who believes in themselves. Ladies Empowerment is a slogan that will not die. Generation comes, generation goes but the earth remained. So LEA will remain.

I will like to say that we ladies should be very careful in handling situations around us. Let’s be cautious in dealing with others. We should be careful in parties and avoid been drunk. Let’s us always remember that people will treat us the way we present ourselves.
I love you all.
Bye.

An ordinary friend has never seen you cry.

A true friend shows up early to help you prepare...and stays late to help clean up.

An ordinary friend gets upset when you call late.

An ordinary friend behaves like a guest and waits to be served when he or she visits.

A true friend goes to the fridge and serves himself.

A true friend?

Someone who sticks with you when everyone else abandons you.

"A friend is someone I can be sincere with, someone I can think out loud to."

WHO ARE YOU?

Keep Your Head To The Sky....!!!

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00
bill. In the room of 200, he asked:

"Who would like this $20 bill…?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.

He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill.

He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

Well, he replied, "What if I do this?"

And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor
with his shoe.

He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.

"Now, who still wants it?"

Still the hands went into the air.

My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I
did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in
Value. It was still worth $20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the
dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or
what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to
those who DO LOVE you.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by
WHO WE ARE.

You are special- Don't EVER forget it."

Count your blessings, not your problems.

And remember: amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.
If God brings you to it - He will bring you through it.

Don't ever look down on yourself because of your problems or your predicaments. If there were No Problems, there will be No Testimonies

Heroes are made and not born, Legends are made and not born. The finest GOLD passes through the HOTTEST furnace.

Remember : Life is the unfairest phenomenom ever known to man. Be Strong!!!

Cheers:D

The recent increase in the cases of reported and unreported rape and sexual assaults on young girl’s and ladies have stolen sleeps from the eyes of concerned women all over the world. The funniest part is the cases of girls that were raped by law enforcement agents that were meant to protect them.
Here are the excerpts from some of the abused, survivors and witnesses:

A friend/client of mine was out with two other girls last weekend. They were meeting up with two more girls at Train Wreck in West Port Plaza. My friend walked in the bar with the two girls she was with, bought a draft beer from the bar and was standing there waiting for a table. She literally had two drinks of her beer and that is all she remembers. She woke up St. Luke's Hospital with high levels of Rohypnol in her blood. They had found her in the parking lot of the hospital. She was raped. The two other girls she was with that night were also drugged, taken from the bar, raped, and later found in the parking lot of St. Anthony's.
No word yet on the girls they were meeting up there. No one has heard from them.
From what the police have told her this is a common problem they are having in West Port. They have arrested one bartender from a different restaurant/bar associated with a different case.
© Ben Westhoff

Even though the police said the information might be false due to the fact that there has not been any complaint from anybody concerning the issue, I think its high time people; especially ladies know that the perpetrators of this act are employing another trick. It’s in form of a drug called Rohypnol. The news reaching me has it that apart from the purpose of making one unconscious, this drug causes some other damage to the body system. To avoid situations like this from happening, we need to:

- Avoid accepting drinks from people you don't know
- If given a bottle or can, make sure it's unopened
- Watch your drink being poured and don't leave it unattended
- If you think your drink tastes unusual, stop drinking it and throw it away
- Try as much as possible to be careful of where you buy your drinks

FAILED SEX ABUSE CASE

MANILA: A British man arrested for sexually abusing young girls in the Philippines has been freed after the case against him collapsed when three key witnesses disappeared, a Roman Catholic priest said yesterday.
Father Shay Cullen said judge Ofelia Pinto told him she would have to drop the charges against the accused, Barry Raymond Edwards, because the three young girls he allegedly raped had left the government shelter where they were staying and could not be located to testify.
Cullen, who runs a foundation against child exploitation, said that when he followed up the case last week, the judge "told me personally, she had to dismiss it because of the mysterious disappearance of the witness-complainants".
Edwards, 59, from southern Essex county in the UK, was arrested in Angeles City north of Manila in 2003 for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
He was initially freed but later arrested again after three girls said they would file charges against him.
Edwards had previously said the charges were part of an extortion plot against him. Cullen said he would seek to have Edwards deported.

© Gulf Daily News

Police are investigating a pair of overnight incidents in which a man broke into a home and raped a 14-year-old girl, and then tried breaking into another home, possibly with the same intent.
At about 4 a.m. Tuesday, North Miami police responded to a burglary call on Northwest 15th Avenue. According to police, a man used a chair to raise himself up to an unlocked window of the house, sneaked inside and raped a 14-year-old girl.
The victim's father said when he returned home after working the overnight shift and didn't find his daughter in her bedroom, he found her in the back yard, where she told him she was forced out of the house at gunpoint by a man who had sexually assaulted her

© Google News search

Cases like this are very common in our vicinity where witnesses will turn down an appearance in court offer. I think there is more politics going on underground than we know of. Most of these
witnesses have been threaten and scared off the court by supporters of the perpetrators and some have sheepishly and callously accepted bribe in exchange for judgement. Either ways, I think the

best way to curb sexual attacks is to be careful in all our dealings and behaviour. We should not follow strangers out on a date and we should try as much as possible to tell our families or friends

our movements. Till a lasting solution is found to this problem, be your brother’s keeper.

LADIES EMPOWERMENT AND AWARENESS MOVEMENT.

(LEA)

NON-GOVERNMENTAL

NON-PROFIT MAKING

What is LEA?

LEA is a non-governmental and a non-profit making movement that came

into existence in the year 2006. LEA was born out of the passion for the Girl-Child

in particular and the ladies folk in general. LEA is a global organization meant to

have representatives and members all over the world. Looking at the vast majority

of NGO's we have around us, we noticed enough attention was been paid to

HIV/AIDS, CANCER and all other deadly diseases.

Little or no attention is accorded the issues of PAEDOPHILES, SEXUAL

ASSAULTS and FORCEFUL MARRIAGES. With the incessant rise in the cases of

sexual assaults on young girls by sex-starved men old enough to be their fathers,

brothers and uncles and alarming increase in the cases of rape and gang rape on our

streets, in our neighbourhood, in parties, in our campuses and even in our

secondary schools. Also, forceful and early marriages for children between the ages

of ten (10) and fourteen (14).

LEA knows that the root of diseases such as HIV/AIDS comes mostly from

the society ills mentioned above. In our own little way of helping our society and the

world at large, we are associating with the victims of forceful marriages, rape and

sexual abuse. Knowing fully well that most of the perpetrators of these heinous and

punishable acts, targets young, helpless and innocent females. LEA is standing up to

the responsibility of helping victims to live a normal life free of societal stigma and

also, protecting the non-victims from becoming one.

To these responsibilities is LEA obliged and will in no way deviate from the

original vision and mission.

OBJECTIVES

TO SEE

A new evolution of women and girl-child all over the world

A world free of female, especially the girl-child abuse and harassment

A voice devoid of molestation and relegation to the background

An equal opportunity for all

MISSION

Building a new-generation of Girl-Child with self-confidence.

Building ladies with character, discipline, respect and integrity.

Building a new society devoid of sexual abuse and molestation.

ACTIVITIES

Capacity building and sensitization programmes for ladies and girl-child all over our schools.

Orientation of parents on the evil of forceful and early marriages

Distribution of posters and hand-bills for awareness against the evil of sexual abuse in our schools and hospitals.

Counseling programmes for victims of sexual abuse in our locality

Exposing the dangers of stigmatization in our society through seminars.

Addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS in it’s totality

MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT

LEA is a non-profit making and non-government movement

To be a member of this movement, you must be:

Above twelve years of age.

A non-racist.

Able to respect peoples religion and decision.

Someone with good team spirit.

A lover of people without prejudice.

Able to work without close supervision.

Creative and humble.

FACILITATOR

NAME: AYENI OLAMIDE

E-MAIL ADRESS:ladiesempowermentandawareness@yahoo.com

YIM ADDRESS: ladiesempowermentandawareness

It was a bad yesterday.
Monday mornings were my best days.
But, yesterday was different.
I was on my way for lunch,
After a hectic morning in the office.
Then I saw a fellow colleague
I saw a fellow Ladokite.

He asked me if I knew you
He asked if I knew MYKEL
What a funny question.
Who won’t know MYKEL?
Who won’t know you?
I tot it was a good news
Then the bombshell came.
MYKEL, I heard you died,is it true?
MYKEL are you there?
MYKEL are you a ghost now?
MYKEL please tell me, it was just a rumor.

I’m short of words.
How can I explain this to the whole house?
You are just too much
You are just MYKEL.
You are an epitome of politics.

How can a star dim?
How can a fire burn out?
How can a future drown?
How can an ocean dry?
MYKEL, how?

We were never really close
You were a politician
I am one too.
You contested for a departmental post
And you lost honorably.
You never allowed that to stop you
You re-contested again
MYKEL, even though you lost the second time,
You won my heart over and over.

I was your secret admirer
I love your gut and boldness
I love your vision and mission
I love your patriotism and leadership style
To me, you were perfect.

You are the boy among the men
You are the men among the boy
You are the genius of our time
A budding star from Lautech
A mechanical engineer to be
In a year’s time you were to graduate
With a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering
After five years of painful labour
Lo and behold you are gone.

You left without a good bye
I heard you were sick for a day
And then you died.
I was so shocked to believe it
You are too young MYKEL
Who are mine to question God!
Who are we to ask him why?
Your death is too much to bear
MYKEL, what happened?

I know the last thing you wanted was death
You wanted to live like everybody
You wanted to enjoy like everybody
To add more to my sorrow,
I heard they did your candlelight procession in school.
Who lead it?
Did they carry your picture?
MYKEL are you there?
Please come out and shame them

You were to be on a six-month industrial training
You were to be on I.T.
Oh my God!
MYKEL is no more
You were so handsome and innocent
You looked like a dad’s boy
Yet you were brilliant and serious
MYKEL, permit me to say good bye

On behalf of:

LAMMY DA GIRL
I’m saying adieu!!! MYKEL.

Ayeni Olamide Idowu.
400Level
Computer Engineering.
(Lammy da girl.)