Sokoto State Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, in collaboration with EU/UN Spotlight Initiative Project, on Wednesday began the training of 50 Gender Based Violence (GBV) survivors on livelihood skills.
Declaring the event opened in Sokoto, the state Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs, Hajiya Kulu Sifawa, urged the survivors to overcome their bad experiences and chart a new life for themselves.
She said the training was to equip the survivors with relevant business skills, hygiene practices and ways to properly handle their situation.
The commissioner explained that GBV included physical, sexual, psychological and emotional attacks, as well as economic deprivation of women and children.
According to her, most perpetrators of GBV are family members and relatives.
Sifawa said the state had enacted the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) and Child Protection Laws, to address the problem.
She added that the law had been packaged and produced in booklets for easier understanding by the general public.
The commissioner added that the booklets had been distributed to GBV surveillance teams in communities across the state.
A UNFPA representative at the event, Mrs Gloria Enuaze, urged the survivors to consider themselves as free persons with all the right to live a good life and pursue their ambitions.
Enuaze advised them not to despair, but consider their experiences as part of their destiny, as they did not prepare or anticipate it.
She therefore, cautioned people against stigmatising the survivors in any form.
The UNFPA representative called for concerted efforts by communities and all stakeholders to reduce cases of rape and other forms of violence against women and children in Sokoto State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training was facilitated by Project Alert, one of the Implementing Partners of the EU/UN Spotlight Initiative Project.
The project is targeted at ending violence against women and girls and other harmful practices in the state.
The Initiative is a global multi-year partnership between the European Union and United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030.
The initiative represents an unprecedented global effort and investment in gender equality, which is a precondition and driver for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
It is responding to all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic and family violence, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and harmful practices, early child marriage, trafficking in humans, sexual and economic exploitation. (NAN)
