GBV: WRAPA inaugurates 10 volunteers in Kogi.
* Warns against meddlesomess
ATABOR JULIUS LOKOJA
The Women’s Right Advancement and Protection Alternative WRAPA has trained and inaugurated ten volunteers who will serve as ambassadors in mitigating and reporting gender based violence across Kogi state.
The Kogi state coordinator of WRAPA, Mrs Bola Ibiteye who performed the inauguration on Friday , during a one day training of volunteers to safe guard the rights of women and girls held in Lokoja,.
The training which is supported by Ford Foundation according to the coordinator is aimed at fortifying it’s organisation resilience and to drive impactive change in protecting women and girls in the society.
Mrs Ibiteye noted that despite significant progress, the prevalence of violence against women and girls persist which underscores the need to intensify efforts in empowering and protecting the vulnerable women and girls in the society.
He added that the need for training of volunteers who will be inculcated with the ideology and objectives of WRAPA as foot soldiers across the three senatorial District of the state became necessary as they have become ambassadors in curtailing the violence against female gender
She explained that the Organisation in carrying out her mandate had supported women and girls to have reasonable livelihoods ,paid some fines for imprisoned women; organised sensitisation talks at NYSC orientation camp, and has taken advocacy to the hard to reach communities where violence against women and girls are hardly been reported.
According to her , the training would equip volunteers to know the task ahead of them as it is a voluntary service to humanity, and to report situations within their environment that may reflect violence against women and girl child.
She said while Wrapa have the legal backing to take up any violence against women and girls, called for collective efforts to guarantee community based safe space for all gender to have basic necessities of life without discrimination on gender difference.
While congratulating the 10 inductees who were chosen from the multitude to under take the task, warned them against meddling and poke nosing on families.
She appealed to Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo to create a robust environment where female gender can thrive and compete with their male counterparts in terms of employment , Education and abolition of inhibitive traditional practices against female gender.
Presenting a paper titled ” the Rights of Women” at the workshop, Barrister Lilian Okolo, chairperson FIDA, noted that the rights of women is basically the same rights of men as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.
She explained that the rights of women include the rights to reproductive health and for the female gender to be able to determine when , how and number of children to give birth to without undue pressures from their husbands.
She urged them to speak out for others taking cognisance of equity , fairness and empathy as they have become the senior advocates of the society.
In the same vein, pastor Isaac Inah, in his paper ” Networking and volunteerism” encouraged them to collaborate with other organisations in the fight for just and egalitarian society.
He noted that volunteerism is a calling to serve the humanity without monetary inclinations and as such they should be active , have listening ears and eyes to see what is going wrong within their environments.
In a remark, Blessing Okekwu , from Community of People with Disabilities and one of the inaugurated volunteers noted that the training has exposed her to how to engage the community and how to use power of negotiations to amicably resolve disagreement and violence.
She added that self confidence and conscious of others’ rights is the surest way of living peace and harmony with others without causing harms and unnecessary confrontations.
According to her, to live in harmony with others one needs to be patient, tolerance and forgiveness, warned against assumptions, but rather , they should get to the roots of the matter while intervening.
She however, admonished families to eschew bitterness and join hands to ensure the wellbeing of their families, even as she charged women to avoid idleness and to get engaged in activities that enhances the economic advancement of the family.
