Anthonia Duru
To create impactful awareness on how to rapidly attend to victims of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA), a non-governmental organization recently in Abuja organised a one-day Capacity Building Workshop for her newly constituted Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Community Response Team on how to respond to SGBV cases within their Communities.
IWOGRA implemented the activity under the Global Resilience Fund for Girls and Young Women Project which is a collective response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Executive Director of IWOGRA, Nkechi Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam who also led a delegation of the traditional rulers of the town palace disclosed that the organization is implementing the project in three communities in Abuja; Jikwoyi, Katampe and Galadimawa.
The workshop which had girls and young women of the selected communities on the provisions of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015 with the aim of eradicating and preventing SGBV also to provide free legal counselling to victims of sexual and gender-based violence. IWOGRA however, provided a simplified version of the Act to enable the communities’ girls and young women understand the content.
The Team will also lead the demand for protection against SGBV and work with IWOGRA to fashion out guidelines and another support system that can further create a safe and secured environment for girls and young women of the selected communities.
The training of the Community Response Team was conducted by Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam under the theme “Addressing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence at the Community Level”. She extensively sensitized the girls and young women on what violence against women and girls mean, various types of violence women and girls experience, why violence against women and girls exist, the consequences of it, laws against SGBV, relevant agencies they can report violations to and how they can prevent SGBV within their communities.
During the interactive session, participants were made to understand the kind of information they should ask survivors during interventions and what they should do with the information in other to seek redress. Some participants shared personal experiences on the forms of SGBV they face experienced and are still experiencing.
The Team were enjoined to desist from victim-blaming and also step down the knowledge gained to other members of their communities.
