IWOGRA trains Jikwoyi community to challenge violence against women, girls

As part of its effort to curb violence against women and girls in grassroots communities, a non-governmental organisation, Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA), held a one-day capacity building workshop for men and boys of Jikwoyi community Abuja.

This activity was made possible with support from ActionAid Nigeria under the ‘Strengthening the Capacities of Local Women’s Right Organisations to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls (SLOC-VAWG)’ project. The project is being implemented by IWOGRA in three communities (Jikwoyi, Chika and Duste Alhaji) in FCT.

Executive Director of IWOGRA, Nkechi Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam noted that the capacity training for the men and boys of Jikwoyi community is to further address and violence against women and girls.

“We want to ensure that men and boys are aware of those cultural and social norms that promotes violence against women and girls, how these norms, believes and practices have negative effects on the realisation of the human rights of women and girls in their community.”

She further streamlined some of the issues the women and girls mentioned when the organisation engaged them and said the gathering is an opportunity for men and boys to come together to curb and reduce VAWG and not see women as second-class citizens.

The group’s programmes officer, Sa’adatu Adamu, while intimating participants about the objectives of the workshop will help men and boys in the community, make conscious efforts at ensuring that they understand VAWG, how it manifest, how they can challenge cultural and social norms that promotes VAWG while taking ownership of the campaign and become allies against VAWG.

A resource person for the workshop, Peter Obi, enlightened the participants on what VAWG means, the various forms in which it manifest, the implications it has on women and girls, the community and the society. Using a participatory and interactive approach, he emphasized on reasons men should see and take women as equal partner, stating that in this generation, women should not be restricted or deprived of their right rather they should be supported.

The event was an interactive session where men and boys were allowed to identify forms of violence they commit against women and girls in their community. The men identified rape, physical abuse and child abuse as the forms of violence commonly perpetrated against women and girls in their community. They also came up with possible solutions to the various forms of violence they identified and exhibited their eagerness to put an end to it. To see to the realisation of their intentions to end violence against women and girls, a few participants were selected to constitute the men and boys community response team.