Centre for Women’s Health and Information, CEWHIN, a non-governmental organization based in Lagos has called on the government at all levels and Nigerians as a whole to create a society devoid of sexual and gender violence on women and girls especially those with disability.
Programme officer of CEWHIN, Pamela Stephen disclosed this during a town hall meeting held at Ikeja Lagos. She said: “Today we are actually having a community awareness creation town hall meeting with different stakeholders including market leaders, law enforcement agents, students, and the five clusters that we are actually working on in this project.
“We need to see people with disabilities as human beings. They are not abnormal. They have rights like everyone else. It is the duty of everyone to make sure we live in a world that is devoid of sexual and gender-based violence on women and girls, especially women and girls with disabilities.
Speaking on the lesson learnt from the meeting, the Iyaloja General, Ikeja Local Government, Alhaja Adijat Apena, said: “We’ve been taught what we didn’t know before. We will put the lessons learnt into use in our communities and our market. We have been given contacts of different government and non-governmental organisations we can reach out to when SGBV issues arise. We will share them with our members and make sure that survivors are not insulted or condemned.”
A visually impaired, Emmanuel Okoawo said he learnt about the importance of creating awareness about GBV. “When you see something, say something. I used to believe that the way some ladies dress is why they are raped but today, I have learnt that that is not so because if the dressing is why people are raped, why do children who wear pampers also get raped?”