From Teryima Ajijah, Jos
A non-governmental organisation, Women for Women International has trained and empowered women who survived violent attacks in Plateau State.
The survivors who are mostly widows were trained on skills acquisition and gender-based violence. According to the Country Director, Women for Women International, Bukola Onyishi, in her address to the women during feedback session told them not to allow the trauma overwhelm them.
Onyishi, who was represented by Zainab Gbobaniyan, said the deprivation of women resulting from violence should be of central concern to governments and to societies at large.
According to her, the gesture is to free the victims from gender-based violence and build women’s skills to increase their participation in the communities they live in.
The Country Director who added that the programme is to be sustained in the next two years, said the exposure to intimate partner violence is linked with a multitude of adverse physical health outcomes, including acute injuries, chronic pain, gastrointestinal illness, gynecological problems, depression, and substance abuse.
According to her, the change agents have engaged with decision makers and power holders in adaptive ways that contextualizes deprivations and gaps reinforced by poor domestication, passage and implementation of gender responsive laws and policies.
She commended the change agents in the six local government areas of Plateau State on the effort done so far and encouraged them to continue in the struggle, saying Women for Women International and other partners are ready to partner with them is their Independent programmes.
She explained further that beneficiaries of the Women for Women International programme were drawn from six local government areas of Plateau State which include; Pankshin, Jos North, Jos South, Jos East, Riyom and Wase Local Government Areas respectively.
