By Philip Yatai

Kaduna, Dec. 9, 2021 (NAN) A Kaduna-based NGO, Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI), on Thursday mobilised community members to promote safe spaces for women and girls against Gender-Based Violence.

Ms Balkisu Gwabin, EWEI’s Organisational Development and Partnership Officer, said at the opening of the engagement in Kaduna that the effort was to strengthen community participation in curbing GBV.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that participants were drawn from Unguwan Romi in Chikun Local Government Area of the state.

They include religious and traditional leaders, youths, girls and women leaders, spouses of the projects’ beneficiaries, members of the Civilian Joint Task Force and those of Kaduna State Vigilance Service.

Gwabin explained that the mobilisation was under the NGO’s “Our Safe Spaces (OSS)’’ project supported by the UN Trust Fund to end violence against women.

She added that the goal was to improve prevention and response to violence against women and girls.

She said that the project which began in 2019 would end in 2022.

The mobilisation, she added, was part of sustainability strategies for the community members to take the lead in curbing GBV.

She said also that the mobilisation was critical to protecting the rights of women and girls for them to thrive and contribute to the development of their respective communities.

The officer explained that the OSS project was designed to support women and girl survivors of GBV physically and economically against violence and sexual exploitation.

“Our Safe Spaces project is currently benefiting more than 450 direct and indirect beneficiaries across Unguwan Romi and Unguwan Dosa communities in Kaduna.

“EWEI has equally supported beneficiaries to establish cooperative societies as a sustainability plan for the women to continue to help themselves and support other women in their communities.

“The project also promotes beneficiaries’ access to psychosocial support systems and economic empowerment opportunities to facilitate normalisation of their lives,’’ Gwabin said.

One of the resource persons, Ms Jelilat Abioye, said that the mobilisation would enable community members to develop a community-led work plan of actions against GBV.

This, according to her, will put the stakeholders on the driver’s seat of ending all forms of violence against women and girls in their communities.

Another resource person, Mrs Amina Mohammed, explained some of the provisions of the state’s Violence against Person (Prohibition) Law 2018, and how it could be used to prosecute offenders.

Mohammed, a Kaduna-based legal practitioner, encouraged community members to speak out to enable the justice system to prosecute perpetrators of GBV.

Mr Marcus Magaji, a community member thanked EWEI for organising the event, and appealed that the gesture be extended to men who were equally being violated.

Magaji explained that some men have lost their jobs, a development that had made them vulnerable to physical and psychological torture in their homes.

Another community member, Mr Linus Makama, said that the engagement had empowered the men with the needed knowledge to work together towards providing safe spaces for women and girls.

A traditional ruler, Mr Dutse Sarki, appealed to the state government to make specific law for the prosecution of kidnappers who were raping women and girls in the communities.