By Philip Yatai

The Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI), with support from the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), says it will mobilise 4,500 critical stakeholders to curb Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in Kaduna.

The intervention, designed to benefit 4,500, men, women and girls, would be implemented under the “We For Them (WFT)” project, the Project Coordinator, Mrs Salome Yakubu said in a statement in Kaduna on Friday.

Yakubu said that the WFT project aims to reduce the rate of SGBV in the state, focusing on sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces.

She added that the project, which would be implemented between 2022 and 2024, would also raise awareness about EWEI’s Gender-Based Violence (GBV) toll-free helpline and support systems for survivors.

She said that EWEI would be working with the Kaduna State Branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, and the Kaduna Polytechnic Branch of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, to implement the WFT project.

“EWEI is delighted to be partnering with AWDF, a grant-making foundation that supports local, national, and regional women’s organisations working towards empowering African women, promoting, and realising their rights.

“We are happy because this project will provide men, women and girls an additional platform to report any form of SGBV, especially sexual harassment and abuses. “The project takes a unique approach by engaging men and boys as allies in addressing issues of GBV and sexual harassment,” she said.