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Association seeks women empowerment to mitigate gender-based violence 

By Victor Gbonegun 
27 December 2022   |   3:23 am
The Champion Women Entrepreneurs Mentoring Association (CWEMA) has charged government and other critical stakeholders to increase avenues for empowerment of Nigerian women who are prone to gender-based violence as a result of poverty.      President of the Association, Olakintan Wellington, said this at the weekend during an event to mark 16-days of activism against…

The Champion Women Entrepreneurs Mentoring Association (CWEMA) has charged government and other critical stakeholders to increase avenues for empowerment of Nigerian women who are prone to gender-based violence as a result of poverty. 

   
President of the Association, Olakintan Wellington, said this at the weekend during an event to mark 16-days of activism against SGBV, tagged: ‘Breaking the silence, speak out’ organised by CWEMA in Lagos. 
She noted that while Lagos State government is doing its best to reduce gender-based violence and empowerment of women, other states in the country should be willing to formulate laws that will empower women and protect them against gender-based violence. 
   
Wellington said the forum was an opportunity to talk to women about issues affecting them, especially marriage and societal pressures.
She observed that gender based violence awareness has been on the increase in recent years, stressing that mitigation measures are being increased and women who are abused are being helped. 
     
Wellington said: “Many children are going through a lot of issues and most of them can not speak out because their parents are not accessible. It is not only the person that wants to talk that should break the silence, the person that they want to talk to is ready to listen.
“We talk to women about economic empowerment, and capacity training to help them establish their own business. Poverty is a factor for gender-based violence. If women don’t have financial pressure, gender based violence will reduce.”
 
She advised parents to listen to their children and avoid leaving female children to untrustworthy relatives who can take undue advantage of the girl-child.
The National Coordinator, Association of Nigeria Women Business Network (ANWBN), Angela Ajala, said men should be more receptive towards mental health and workshops, because there is a lot of pressure on men to do enough for the family. 

According to her, it is important to talk more about the importance of mental health in the society, where men can receive counsel and speak out their minds. 
She noted that with the present economic situation, everybody in the family must play a role to reduce tension and violence in any form. 
 
Ajala said: “Violence can come in different forms: sexual, physical, psychological, verbal and socio-economic. So many of the associations speaking for women now focus on mentoring and entrepreneurship because they believed that if a woman is financially independent, they will be able to support the family, and fight against violence.”

Many times women stay in places where they are abused because they don’t have other options or fall back plans. We have seen a number of deaths due to the fact the woman didn’t know what to do.”
Ajala encouraged women to collaborate with each other to achieve their goals, build strong networks and carry out self-appraisal on what has been achieved in all spheres of life.
 
The Associate Director, KPMG, Adenike Yemi-Faseun, urged women to make themselves happy and harness their potential to add value to society.
   
According to Yemi-Faseun, if women are not empowered and do not have good jobs, they may be subjected to abuse. 
A past national coordinator of ANWBN, Modupe Oyekunle, said women must develop the courage to speak up when they experience gender-based violence in marriage.

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