Aisha Tijani has emerged the overall winner of the sixth edition of the Endometriosis Support Group Nigeria (ESGN) Senior Secondary School Essay Competition.
Aisha Tijani, a student of Crescent College, Victoria Island emerged winner in the competition, which is eligible for participation for SS1 to SS3 female students of all secondary schools in Lagos State.
The essay competition, which seeks to showcase the knowledge of the students on endometriosis was organised by Nordica Fertility Centre in conjunction with AstraZeneca.
Participating students were asked to write an essay on the topic, “Increasing the awareness of Endometriosis in Nigeria”.
The winners including Udom God’sFavour of Prudence City College as first runner-up and Oluwafemi Olafuyi of Rainbow College as second runner-up were awarded cash prizes for contributing to the awareness of endometriosis in Nigeria.
Aisha Tijani received a trophy and ₦50,000 cash prize, while the first runner-up got ₦30,000, and the second runner-up, went home with ₦20,000 as consolation prizes.
In the words of Aisha Tijani:
“As a winner, I now know more about endometriosis and I intend to create a social media platform where I would be able to talk about endometriosis conditions as well as other health conditions affecting women.
The competition enlightened me about endometriosis and also taught me that I should always research things. I am talking to some of my classmates, most of them were enlightened because they did not know much about the condition.”
Tijani acted as the One-day Country Manager of AstraZeneca in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child.
Between 11:30-12:00 pm, she joined the AstraZeneca Global Girl Child meeting where she had a zoom meeting with other girls from countries like Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
Announcing the winners, Managing Director of Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, said the essay competition was essentially to raise awareness among the young ladies because “we know also they have their own share of influence.”
According to Dr. Abayomi Ajayi, a gynaecologist:
“We want them to understand the problem from secondary school which usually starts around that age. People in SS1 and SS2 that is when they start their menses. It is an important age to start spreading the awareness of endometriosis.
We are trying to develop endometriosis advocates among the students in all secondary schools in Lagos State.
Even up till now, all over the world and not only in Nigeria, many doctors are missing the diagnosis of endometriosis because in endometriosis the symptoms are here and there.
It is not like malaria where you have fever and headache. It depends on where the deposit is.
So, you could have somebody who is coughing out blood who has endometriosis. You could have somebody who has period pain who has endometriosis.
The most important thing is a high index of suspicion and that is, if you don’t think about it, you are not going to see it. And that is why awareness is very important.
We started the endometriosis awareness campaign 17 years ago and have been doing annual events. This is the sixth edition of the essay competition and we hope that it will become nationwide over time.”
In her remarks, Commissioner for Education in Lagos State, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, commended Nordica Fertility Centre for the initiative and its effort in raising endometriosis awareness among adolescent girls and women in the state.
Mrs. Adefisayo, who was represented by the Director of Finance and Accounts in the ministry, Dr. Olasunkanmi Odesanya, said the competition will add value to the health of women and girls in the state through awareness creation.
