Former Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, (NAPTIP), and Founder, Safe Haven Foundation, Professor Fatima Waziri-Azi, has said that Community’s Based Organisations has a great role to play in championing advocacy against human and organ trafficking in Nigeria.
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She stated this at the official opening of the office and shelter of the Safe Haven Foundation, in Abuja. She said “When we talk about issues on Sexual and Gender Based Violence, (SGBV), or trafficking in persons, the government cannot do it alone which is why we keep saying that the best approach is the whole of government and the whole of society approach.

“We have tons of NGOs and CSOs that work in this space but no one agency and no one organisation can do it alone and the magic word is collaboration and partnership. So, the CSOs, CBOs and NGOs are here to compliment the work of government.

Professor Waziri-Azi noted that the enormity of the challenges posed by SGBV and trafficking in persons especially at the community level, requires the type of interventions CBOs usually carry out.

She said further that “Community based organizations should be the ones to champion advocacy against human trafficking, against organ trafficking and against sexual and gender-based violence.

“The Safe Haven Foundation aims to prevent domestic violence and sexual abuse through strategic legal advisory, advocacy and support to survivors.
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“We are focusing on survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse because we know that a lot of times people who find themselves in abusive situations just need a safe place to go and recoup and think about what the next step will be. This is why we founded the Safe Haven Foundation.”

The focused for Safe Haven she said; “We will be providing key services; number one is advocacy, number two is legal representation, advice and legal representation and referral services, number three will be research and publication and number four is sheltering and counseling.”

The foundation also targets awareness creation in the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), with the aim of fostering behavioural change because behavioural change prevents abuse from happening.

“For any society to function as it should, there should be a people centred access to justice, that is access to information so that when people run into trouble, they should know what to do, who to call and where to go to,” she pointed.

Noting the importance of shelters in tackling these challenges, Director General Legal Aid Council, Aliyu Abubakar, said that the shelter is critical to tackling societal challenges of domestic violence, SGBV among others hence, the legal aid counsel would give it full support to the work of the organisation.

He said “The Safe Haven Foundation is an organisation that is established to cater for the less privileged in our society especially on this issue that leads to sexual and gender-based violence especially on women.
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“We in the legal aid council are in a familiar ground and we are here to assure and reassure of the fact that not only are we going to partner with Safe Haven Foundation, we are going to make sure that we become part and parcel of the foundation right from the take off period.

“We are going to make available our offices and officers to the foundation so that it can be able to achieve all that it sets out to achieve in the discharge of its corporate responsibility as registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC).”

Representative of the Rule of Law and Anti-corruption, (RoLAC), Danladi Plang, who also spoke on behalf of the European Union, (EU) and the Federal Ministry of Justice, praised Professor Waziri-Azi for her indelible work and landmark successes in NAPTIP and the legal field noting that she has supported so many organizations to succeed in the space and has there earned back their support and appreciation the path she has taken to better humanity.

He said “We are happy that after leaving NAPTIP you are not resting on your oars and have decided to take this up and I think it’s a challenge to many people as this shows your passion and commit while in service and even when not in government service and we will continue to support you.”

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