Thursday, April 08, 2021/ 11:00 AM / by NASFAT/ Header Image Credit: UNICEF

Nasrulahi-L-Fatih Society (NASFAT) in collaboration with the United Nations Children'sFund, UNICEF is set to commence a campaign to tackle Violence Against Women andGirls in Nigeria. The project is an EU-UN spotlight initiative on endingviolence against women and girls' campaign in collaboration with UNICEF.

The partnershipaims to provide a larger platform and provide broader opportunities to enhancecommitment to stamping out various forms of violence and abuses against womenand girls in the society.

ViolenceAgainst Women and Girls (VAWG) is an abuse of rights that poses consequences onthe health and wellbeing of the survivors or lead to the death of the victims.

TheUN-NASFAT partnership would be for three months, from April to June 2021 andthe campaign would be taken to communities across Nigeria in five States andthe Federal Capital Territory FCT, namely, Lagos in the South west, Cross Riverin the South South, Ebonyi in the South East, Adamawa in the North East, Sokotoin the North west and Abuja in the North Central.  The Programme focuses on educating stakeholders,paying advocacy visits to religious and community leaders, sensitizationprogrammes for Men, Women and Youth leaders on ending violence against womenand girls to curb gender-based violence. The Sensitisation exercise would betaken to selected schools or Madrasahs in the focus-states toeducate the boys and girls on how to identify actions that constitute violence,protect themselves and report.

Boys willalso be sensitised on the need for them to be the protectors and notperpetrators of violence against women and girls.

The World Health Organization

WHO(2014) and World Bank (2018) reported that 35% of females globally haveexperienced one form of violence or the other in Nigeria, harmful practicesagainst women are underlined by socio-cultural beliefs and practices.

The ViolenceAgainst children, VAC survey (NPCPC 2014) revealed that violence against the girl-childis widespread in the country.  Oneamongst five girls have experienced physical violence and 25% have experiencedsexual violence.

More thanSeventy percent (70.5%) of girls have reported at least one incident of sexualabuse before the age of 18. Further, data revealed that Nigeria has the largestnumber of child brides in Africa - currently, 43% of girls are married beforeage 18, and 17% are married before they turn 15. Unfortunately, despite thegreat percentage of gender-based violence in all its forms and women rightsviolations; ignorance and lack of awareness are the main problems, and in manycases, victims are not always willing to speak out, stand up for their rightsnor the society stand up for them or admit with their rights even if the lawdoes.

The EUsupports 5 Recipient UN Organizations - UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women, UNICEF &UNESCO - to implement the Spotlight Initiative in Nigeria which is aimed atending all forms of violence against women and girls*

Accordingto the NASFAT/UNICEF project lead, Alhaja Ganiyat Babalola, NASFAT'scollaboration with UNICEF dated back to 21st July 2017, with a signedpartnership agreement on Ending Violence against Children Campaign, a programmethat was diligently carried out in phases with proven records of remarkablesuccess.

The spotlightinitiative on ending violence against women and girls campaign is in line with thenSDG Target 5.2 to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.

Also, theSDG Target 5.3 to eliminate all harmful practices such as child, early orforced marriage and female genital mutilation.

 The President of NASFAT, Mr. Niyi Yusuf, addedthat all the efforts at ensuring welfare of the citizen is in line with thefocus and policy thrust of NASFAT, which is tagged HELD (Health, Education,Livelihood Dawah).  He noted that thesociety was fully committed to the wellbeing of its members and the public. Accordingto Yusuf, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said "if any one of yousees anything bad, he should correct or change it with his hands. If he cannotdo that, he should use his tongue."

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