Women facing violence in NigerIa have been advised to speak out and report every form of abuse they suffer in the hands of men to the appropriate agencies.
Project Director, foundation for Resilient, empowerment and development, Rosemary Ngozi Echewe, gave the advice at the graduation ceremony of spotlight initiative project on ending violence against women and girls held in Surulere lagos
At the event 25 women trained in different skills graduated and are expected to get start-up kits.
Speaking with pointnews247, Ngozi said the training is in three batches. The first and second took place at the federal capital territory, Abuja and lagos adding that while, two batches had been completed, the present graduates is the third batch trained in different professions.
“We are actually graduating our third batch on the livelihood pathway programme we started,we have done two batches one in the FCT and Lagos. so this is our third batch”
“Today,they have completed their trainings for three months, each in different professions,we have Bakers, fashion designers,Hair dressers, professional makeup artist and shoemakers so, five courses were enrolled for this batch.
According to her, they are helping Government to build the nation by assisting the neglected in the society,” You know the women who have enrolled for this programme are SGBV survivors,they have been through one form of abuse and they enrolled for the Programme and after the completion of their trainings,we are not just going to leave them,we will be responsible for them so that,they can fend for themselves and that’s why, Donors under the spotlight initiative made provisions for their start-up kits”.
While Ngozi thanked the Donors for their support,She expressed confidence that,the start-ups will enable the graduands earn a living because they now have financial independence
” As you can see, we have different equipment for different professions,so after today they can startup on their own, earn a living and be financially independent, they don’t need to depend on anybody”.
On her part, Gloria Okekearu, the Programme Officer of the foundation said the objective of the Programme is to empower abused women such that,those who have successfully completed their trainings with the foundation are equiped with necessary tools to work, make money and live a better life”.
The Foundation for Resilient Empowerment and Development
Country Director, Rosemary Echewe, called for more Government participation and awareness on ending violence against women in NigerIa.
“Good enough for Lagos state, the Rap artists domesticated here, they can be an advocate to ending violence against women and Lagos state is leading when it comes to fighting SGBV”
“We have a number of institutions they can go to report,
“for this Programme, we work with the human rights, like National women rights commision, ministry of women and poverty reduction, llASODA”
We also work with FIDA and we have crack teams in our various communities who act as advocates in the community to reach out to people and sensitize them. We just want more of Government’s participation and awareness”
“We want everybody to know that,you don’t have to suffer in silence if you are going through a form of abuse,please don’t keep quiet because there are people to go to same as agencies”.
The cumulative number of women who have benefited from the
Foundation for Resilient Empowerment and Development Programme from 2020 to 2022 is 287