By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
A gender-based non-governmental organization, Leadership Initiative For Youths Empowerment, (LIFE) has pointed out sensitization and education of the male and female genders as key tools to ending gender-based violence in Nigeria.
This was made known at a 3day capacity strengthening training workshop design to create awareness among secondary school children in Isolo/Oshodi Local Government Area of Lagos State.
“The workshop theme is: Scaling up leadership of female survivors for effective gender based violence (GBV)response and access to justice in Oshodi/Isolo and it’s environs.
‘One of the facilitators, a gender and development consultant ,Chibugo Obinnwa who presented a paper on: “Understanding advocacy, gender-based violence, access to justice and human’s rights”,said, it was possible for Nigeria to end GBV, especially harmful cultural and traditional practices that affect the physical and psychological well-being of a widow.
” Some harmful cultural treatment meted may include locking the woman with her husband’s corpse, shaving of her hair, starvation, giving her the corpse water to drink among others.
She spoke about early child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation,as traditional practices that we need to end. Although there ongoing advocacy, we need to intensify the effort.
Obinnwa said it is doable, we can end violence against women and girls in Nigeria. At worst, we reduce it. The way to do it is to start by educating them and their families. We educate them on the wholesome attitudes expected of males and females in the family.
“We educate them on relationships, how to relate with one another, because each gender has their own respect, so the relationship matter is important, we have to really educate them on how to do it. We also need to get in touch with the policy makers.
“The underlying factor is to let people be educated through different ways like workshops and seminars. This should be a continuous thing and not a seasonal or periodic thing. We need to get everybody on board.”
Another facilitator at the event was, Programme Director of the group,Ogechi Jessica Stephens presented a paper titled: Overcoming Challenges and Resilience.
“We intend to approach GBV from a preventive stance where adolescence boys and youth males learn and re-learn how to treat our sisters, women and mothers better for a peaceful and more loving homes, communities, groups and Church.”
” Most rape victims prefer to keep quiet about it and let the matter go. We had to bring this programme here, to create awareness that you can actually get justice as a victim .The NGO would be taking such cases up to ensure victims get justice and bring perpetrators to book.
“It is a ‘life-saving’ programme that came at the right time for the community, the people now have the confidence to approach the foundation to help them take up a case to a logical conclusion.
She stressed that “Before the coming of the programme, perpetrators are left to move freely, while victims are left traumatized. We are creating awareness to sensitized the students who in turn educate their parents and community.
However, Jessica-Stephens said the students have learnt to treat females with respect, ensure they were not discriminated in all decisions and shun all name-calling and gossip against them.
Furthermore,she said the overall impact of
LIFE is addressing gender-based violence (GBV) and equally providing support to survivors.
“Our activities include provision for defining domestic violence, outlining legal protections, and establishing mechanisms for reporting and responding to cases. The guidelines for responding to GBV reporting pathways outline steps and procedures for reporting cases are identifying signs, contacting victims and accessing legal and support services.
Pointing out to Peer pressure and self-esteem required as a prerequisite for
understanding advocacy principles and strategies.
“GBV refers to any form of violence directed at an individual based on their gender, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable group women and girls.
“Emphatically, created a pathway to access justice and ensures equal access to legal remedies and protections for all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances.
“Other facilitators who presented papers,were a legal practitioner Gloria Odimba who spoke on”Overview of the Lagos State DV Law and Guidelines for Responding to cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) While David Ral-Onyejegbu was on Peer Pressure and Self-Esteem