From Oswald Agwu
From Oswald Agwu
A Nongovernmental organisation, Project Alert On Violence Against Women, has unveiled plans to set up a Surveillance Team in some rural communities in Ebonyi State.
The team would be engaged in combating Sexual and gender-based violence in the communities through monitoring of victims, information sharing and strengthening of referral pathways.
The Program Officer of the Organisation, Mrs Nsini Udonta, revealed the plan during a two-day State level stakeholders workshop that commenced Tuesday in Abakaliki, the State capital.
The project was in support of the Spotlight Initiative, a global project funded by European Union - United Nations, EU-UN.
Addressing journalists during the event, Udonta explained that the surveillance team would work in rural communities to identify victims and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence to lead them to appropriate help services and authorities.
She noted that the fight against Sexual and Gender-based violence demanded collaboration and group action, adding that studies have revealed that there was still a high prevalence of SGBV in some parts of Ebonyi State.
Udonta said: "We have brought the stakeholders here to introduce ourselves and our project to them.
"When it comes to issue of development work, you cannot work alone, and when it comes to gender and sexual violence, you cannot do it alone.
"We are going to work primarily in the rural areas, to set up a surveillance team in the communities.
"These surveillance team will serve as a watchdog and our eyes in the communities to monitor cases going on, and be able to refer victims or survivors to appropriate available services in the State, where they can get help."
Highlighting the contributions of the State Ministry of health in the fight against GBV in the State, the Gender Desk officer, Mrs Ngozi Roland Chukwuma, noted that apart from providing referral services, the Ministry carry out free emergency support to victims: treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and the giving of prophylaxis like that of HIV, as well as contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancies in cases of rape.
Explaining that referral pathways represented the mechanism of linking survivors to psycho-social, health and legal services, Chukwuma stressed that such services were necessary to ensure that the needs of survivors or victims are met holistically.
In a submission, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Chinwe Okah, represented by the Director, Department of Child Development in the Ministry, Mr Godwin Igwe, said the Ministry has been carrying out aggressive media campaigns against gender-based violence in the State.
"We have also, in collaboration with UNICEF, National Orientation Agency, the Christian Association of Nigeria, been carrying out sensitization against gender-based violence in rural communities, churches and other social groups" Igwe added.
Other participants who spoke during the event, including the representative of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons, NAPTIP, and the State Coordinator, Ebonyi Network of Civil Societies, Oliver Aja Chima, Pledged their continued support and collaboration to achieve the objective of ending GBV and other forms of abuse such as rape and human trafficking in the State.
Resource persons at the workshop drawn from both the State and non-state actors presented diverse topics bordering on forms of Gender-based violence, access to justice and support for victims and families; referral pathways and the role of men in preventing and responding to sexual and Gender-based violence.
Stakeholder participants were drawn from the Civil Society organisations, security agencies and representatives of concerned Government Ministries Departments and Agencies.
In the meantime, the project covers two Local Government areas in the State: Ohaozara and Onicha.
