The Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI) has encouraged more women and girls in Nigeria to speak out against the menace of gender-based violence (GBV).
Through its Our Safe Spaces (OOS) campaign in Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) is working to ensure that women are economically independent.
Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights as its negative impact includes physical, sexual, and psychological consequences for women and girls with some cases sometimes leading to death.
A study commissioned by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that 28 percent of women in Nigeria between the ages of 25 and 29 experienced some form of physical violence before age 15.
The study also showed that the level of exposure to the risk of violence for women varied based on marital status, with 44 percent of divorced, separated or widowed women abused.
The OSS project, with a grant from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), was launched in December 2019 to support women and girl survivors of physical and economic violence, as well as sexual exploitation in Kaduna State.
‘We engaged 40 women from Agwan Dosa and 40 from Agwan Romi to sensitise them to the menace of GBV in the communities’, campaign convener, Bilkisu Gwabin, said.
‘These women are expected to encourage other women within their circle and communities to also speak out against GBV. These women are already making waves and breaking this silence and whenever something happens, they follow up just to ensure that justice is done as well’.
The project, it was also gathered, promotes beneficiaries’ access to psychosocial support systems and economic empowerment opportunities to facilitate normalisation of their lives.
‘There is a cooperative that was opened for them in their communities through which they are able to either boost their businesses or start afresh. We ensure that each and every one of them has something doing’, Gwabin said.
One of the beneficiaries, Ramatu Ishaq, said the project had helped women in her community to speak up and fight for their rights.
‘Before the Our Safe Spaces project reached us, we were ignorant of what our rights were’, she said.
It is understood that the project has so far benefitted over 450 women across the two communities in Kaduna State.
Photo source: EWEI
