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A non governmental organisation, the Humanity Family Foundation for Peace and Development (HUFFPED) has concluded a sensitisation dialogue program on Gender Based Violence (GBV) at Imota, near Ikorodu, Lagos State.
The program, which held early December was among the activities in the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
Focal person for HUFFPED at the dialogue, Emmanuela Bassey said it was observed that rural women prefer to stay silent on GBV to erroneously protect their homes.
“We noticed that women don’t speak out, they just endure the GBV issues and they believe NGOs activism on the issue is capable of creating problems in their homes,” she said.
Talking about the reasons for the program, she said, “Women especially in the rural communities don’t talk about it, so we had to sensitise them on how to report GBV.
“They are mostly not educated, so they don’t know now to report it. They always say they can’t talk about it but we told them the way forward is to talk about it,” she said.
According to the organisers, the project was coined out of the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence which is a key international moment to call for an end to violence against women and girls.
The global event ran between 25th November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and 10th December, which is the Human Rights Day.
Addressing the participants, Mrs. Ologunnagba Adejoke, an official from the National Orientation Agency (NOA), enjoined them to always speak up when any GBV occurs in and around their homes.
Over 30 women from the community participated at the event and got enough knowledge from HUFFPED on stopping GBV as well as steps needed in reporting such.
They were also sensitised on need to participate in the political process which would give them the needed voice in their communities.
