THE Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD- Lagos Chapter) was the focus of the Community Capacity Building Programme for Civil Society Organisations and Right Groups on SGBV Referral Services that held on Tuesday, under the Spotlight Initiative Project organised by Project Alert on Violence Against Women.
The event took place at the Simply Exponential Hub, Ikeja.
Present at the programme were executive officials from different PWD associations like National Association of the Blind (NAB), Lagos State Albinism Awareness, Disabled and Physically Challenged Persons, Deaf Women Association and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
During the exercise, Executive Director and Founder of Project Alert, Dr. (Mrs.) Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, educated the attendees on the "Prevalence of Sexual & Gender-Based Violence in Communities and Steps to Take Including Referrals".
She revealed that women with disabilities are more prone to sexual and gender-based violence. Based on her findings during her research in Akwa Ibom and Cross-River States, these women usually have a low life-span due to the challenges of discrimination, abandonment and emotional stress amongst others.
Dr. Effah-Chukwuma informed the PWDs that sexual and gender-based violence against men and women is real and that there are services to help in such situations. She implored them to speak up if they are victims of such circumstance, or if they get wind of such occurrence. This made the hall resonate with the "see something, say something" mantra.
Speaking with AlimoshoToday on the significance of the Spotlight Initiative Project (SIP) for PWDs, Effah-Chukwuma sais the organisation intends to leave no one behind and the disability community is a recognised community.
“It is important that they are exposed to these issues and that they understand it. In fact, they are more affected in the community, especially their women. Because of the disability, people tend to abuse them more. Everyone is entitled to fundamental human rights, including the right not to be tortured and violated."
"So far, it's been about human right and the constitutional rights of people with disabilities. Now, we have that. Salient issues like sexual and gender-based violence are very critical. After poverty, I think that's the next thing to look at, as it affects persons with disabilities in our society.
"I'm particularly impressed about this because this is enlightening. In the case of sexual violence, we now know what to do. The checklist has been given and I think this is highly commendable. I wish them more success and hopefully there will be more of it."
"The prominence of domestic and sexual violence as garnered today can be attributed to organisations like ours. When we started, people were not talking and we have broken the silence. Anti-sexual and gender-based violence has tremendously grown as opposed to 21 years ago. That we have even moved it to the disability community is an attestation to that."
The Financial Secretary of Lagos State Awareness Albinism Society, Mrs. Adudu Rose, equally gave thumbs up to the programme saying: "The programme is very exposing. We have learnt much and the only thing left is for us to pass the information to our members. We will enlighten them so that they will know what to do at the right time. When there are issues, they should know the right authorities to report to that will help them."
During the programme, six persons (three men and three women) were selected for the SGBV Community Surveillance across the five associations present at the capacity-building programme. They will serve as watchdogs in their various communities on issues regarding sexual and gender-based violence.