Curbing Violence Against WGWD: Foundation Canvasses For More Grass-root Involvement

Focus for last Saturday, April 23rd SoLife weekly TV series was on the key role of society’s Grass-roots in the advocacy campaign to put a stop to the violence being suffered by Women and Girls With Disabilities (WGWD).

The week’s presenter was Fatimah Bintu Dikko. She did an engaging presentation on the topic: “The Role of Grass-roots Involvement In Curbing Violence Against Women And Girls With Disabilities”.

Bintu describes Grass-roots as rural areas – the third tier of the Governmental hierarchy. She however maintained that she sees the grass-root as the first tier because it is closest to the family. Society, according to her, will be better off by a long stretch when government starts giving due attention to rural areas.

While emphasizing on the importance of the grass-root, Bintu noted that although cases of violence and abuse are more prevalent in rural areas, they are often unreported owing to poor awareness level of rural dwellers.
To buttress her point, she narrated the case of a deaf woman whose cassava tubers got stolen at a local mill. This deaf woman could have taken up the matter if she knew her rights. Unfortunately she didn’t, and because she couldn’t speak the matter went unnoticed “Meanwhile, Bintu argued that there are many organizations out there who are ready to take up such cases.”

The majority of these rural dwellers have no access to TV and social media. They are thus cut off from information that are vital to their enlightenment – hence the need to step up sensitization programs at the Grass-roots level. That way, they can be liberated from the prison of ignorance because what a person does not know is greater than her.
Delving deeper into the grass-root space, Bintu appealed to parents of children with Disabilities to see these children as gifts from God – their Disabilities notwithstanding.

According to her, these children deserve the best of care. The Disability Rights Advocate frowns at abuse and violence against the child with Disability in the family. “It is sad that the very place where these vulnerable kids ought to find solace is turning out to be a threat to their welfare”, Bintu laments.

The guest presenter also believes that for the awareness campaign for involvement of Grass-roots in the War against violence and abuse to be effective, the community head should be carried along because he wields great influence on the iinhabitants.

Efforts should also be made to reach out to other great minds and influencers in the community who may be interested in the cause. “This kind of synergy is very important”, Bintu emphasized.

Continuing, the narrative zeroed in on the educational situation in the grass-roots. The speaker decried the paucity of qualitative education for the rural dwelling child with Disability. She pointed out how potentials of the child with Disability in the Grass-roots wastes away because their unique educational needs are generally not provided for.

While calling for equal opportunities for these children, Bintu drew attention to the exceptional abilities and brilliance displayed by some of them in certain areas – insisting that physical disability has nothing to do with brain functioning.

The 30 minute talk also threw light on teaching the child with Disability on recognizing danger signals and taking necessary precautions to avoid falling prey to abuses. The child with Disability is encouraged to be fearless and report any case of abuse.

Bintu, while commending the Disability friendly moves of the Lagos State government, called for a consolidation on progress already made through a fast tracking of more laws that will improve the lot of PWDs across Nigeria. One of these, she believes, is the granting of employment quotas to PWDs in both public and private sectors.
The presentation closed with a call for all hands to be on deck to ensure a safer society for everyone by offering better chances to these vulnerable persons lest they become a nuisance. Bintu sums it up thus: “Your child isn’t safe until every child out there is safe”.