GBV: SOAR Initiative inaugurates safe space centre for FCT communities
By Justina Auta
An NGO, Sexual Offences Awareness and Response (SOAR) Initiative, on Tuesday in Abuja, inaugurated a safe space centre to eliminate violence against women and girls in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) communities.
The groups Executive Director, Ms Chinyere Eyoh, said the organisation was contracted by UNESCO to initiate the project under Spotlight Initiative, which is a global initiative to end violence against women and girls funded by the United Nations and European Union.
Eyoh said the inauguration of the safe space centre in Kurudu, under the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), would also be inaugurated in Ushafa, Bwari Area Council of the FCT.
She explained that in the safe spaces created, we teach life skills such as assertiveness, self esteem, and decision making.
We teach girls their rights and give them the skills required to assert those rights, pursue and acquire what they desire to become and want.
It will enable girls and women to have their capacity built and learn life skills, and how to protect themselves and what the law says their rights are, as well as make confidential disclosures about sex, justice and support concerning violation.
According to her, the organisation has visited 60 schools to create safe spaces to teach girls life skills, as well as how to protect themselves from sexual violence and related crimes.
She added that the organisation had also created remedial classes for girls at the risk of dropping out of school so as to empower them to complete their education, as well as trained 120 guidance and counselling counselors to work with them.
Dr Stephen Onyekwelu, the Spotlight Initiative Project Manager, UNESCO Regional Office, said the essence of the safe space was to achieve the mandate of the Initiative toward eliminating violence against women and girls.
Onyekwelu said that the safe space would provide a place for women and girls to be empowered with life skills, share experiences relating to violence and eliminate the culture of silence and appropriate actions to know and fight for their rights.
The AMAC Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu-Candido, said the effort was in line with the councils mandates toward ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) in communities through the collaboration of religious and traditional leaders.
Adamu-Candido, who was represented by the Special Assistant on ICT/CSOs, Mrs Abiodun Essiet, said the council had deployed a staff from the social welfare unit to regularly lecture women and girls on GBV, as well as refer complex cases for prosecution to seek justice.
The Chief of Kurudu, Mr Ezra Gomna, commended the efforts of the government and NGOs for their support, which he said would reduce cases of GBV in the community.
Gomna reiterated the commitment of the traditional council in ending GBV, adding that culprits would be reported to the appropriate authorities for prosecution, while survivors would be cared for at the safe space centres.
A community member, Mrs Joy Ugwu, said the centre would serve as comfort zone for women and girls seeking to confidently report and seek justice for violence and harmful practices meted on them.
Source: NAN News