Monarchs Renew Commitments To End Violence Against Women ,Girls In Ekiti
Traditional ruiers in Ekiti State have promised to embrace all forms of advocacies towards ending violence against women and girls in their respective domains.
Gender Based Violence is a global issue that threatens sustainable development, unless women and men fully enjoy their human rights, to which freedom from violence is inextricably bound, progress toward development will continue to fall short.
Promoting women and girl’s rights and reducing gender-based violence are necessary to increase the effectiveness of development globally and it is the job of everyone including the custodian of cultures- Our Obas.
The royal fathers gave this commitment during advocacy visits to their kingdoms by a team of a non Governmental organisation (NGO) christened Balm in Gilead Foundation for Sustainable Development (BIGIF).
The Obas agreed that collective efforts remain the major path to women empowerment and mitigating the effects of violence in the society.
In his remarks ,the Alaye of Oke Ayedun-Ekiti, Oba Olufemi Aribisala who said as custodians of culture and tradition, he will never support any form of violation of the rights of women.
The monarch emphasized that violence is not our culture and that he will continue to lead the campaign against it in his domain.
Aniother monarch and Elesun of Esun-Ekiti, Oba David Ogunsakin said the psoace is committed to the initiative to prevent violence against women and girls in their communities.
Oba Ogunsakin therefore promised to l work with his subjects to spark public intolerance of VAWG. BIGIF is currently implementing solidarity, accountability and commitment project to ending Violence against Women and Girls .
According to him ,the aim is to tackle all forms of discrimination, build capacity to demand accountability on violence against women and girls, and push for reforms that would contribute to the elimination all forms of discrimination against women and girls so that we can have a society where women can live a life free of violence.
Earlier, BIGIF Team lead – Oluwatumininu Akerele while sharing the scope of the project with the communities said a long standing efforts in policy advocacy and GBV response as a front-line responder, has committed time and resources to programming through the production and distribution of existing gender related laws and policies in the state
This is geared towards increasing accessibility, knowledge enhancement and awareness creation on women’s right, equal opportunity and gender equality. According to her, BIGIF became the first organization to translate all gender-based laws and policies in Ekiti state to Yoruba; produced and distributed more than 60,000 copies in English and Yoruba since 2017.
Ogeide Amaze – a project assistant of the organization highlighted various types of GBV including: physical, economic, emotional and sexual violence. She further sensitize the people on the numerous limitations to GBV response which include, the culture of silence, discrimination, secondary victimisation, cultural relativism and illiteracy.
She identified, poverty, drug abuse, harmful practices, gender inequality, discrimination and stereotype as causes of GBV in the society. The Obas both committed to fully supporting the project as they appreciated BIGIF and its partnersWARDC and Ford foundation for the project.