A cross section of development practitioners today made a ‘fist into the air’ commitment to Stop Gender Based Violence (GBV) at a One-Day Sensitization Meeting On Gender Based Violence(GBV) And The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act(VAPP) to mark the International Human Rights Day organized by Women Arise today the 10th of December, 2015 in Ikeja, Lagos.
The event was centred on the screening of a documentary compiled by the women arise group of several bone chilling incidents of violence against women by their spouses, police brutality and child slavery.
Relating one of the incidents, Dr Joe Odumakin shared the story of a young girl who was constantly chained day and night to the generator when not being worked by her ‘Madame’. Fortunately, a neighbour who witnessed this reached out to the Women Arise group, sending them pictures of the girl chained to the generator and a phone call which later led to the group visiting the scene of the crime with police officers. The perpetrators of this act have been arrested and the matter is currently in the law court.
Mr F. John Bray, Consul General of the American Embassy in his remarks stated the importance of the documentary and the need for it to be shared widely. In his words he said, ’what I think is important is how powerful this document is and I think it should get spread very widely for others to see cos only together can we stop gender based violence’.
He also emphasised the need for people to take action when faced with violence by speaking up and not feeling ashamed to seek redress in the courts saying, ‘Everyone has a fundamental duty not to turn away in the face of violence and brutality’.
Dr Joe Odumakin in consonance with the words of the consul general stated that ‘we must sit up, we must be selfless, we must remain focused, we must remain resilient and we must ensure that we continue to protect lives and property’. This she said to galvanize participants into taking action against gender based violence.
She also made a call to terrorists and life wasters (perpetrators of violence) saying, ‘we must all sheath our swords and ensure that we protect lives and property because you have only one life and when you throw any stone, you can never be sure where it will land’.
Also speaking on the role of religious institutions and society in the fight against gender based violence, she remarked that ‘any religion that encourages our women to continue to endure domestic violence should be considered archaic and therefore a relic of our society. Instead our culture and religion should be used to encourage our sisters to continue to take a stand against violence and be used to ensure perpetrators of such violent acts are brought to the book’.
Also speaking at the event, Erelu Mojisola Adams admonished women to be hard work and take a stand against domestic violence.
Also at the event were survivors of domestic violence, rape and police brutality some of whom shared their experiences and expressed profound gratitude to the women arise group for their help and dedication in ensuring justice is served.
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