13th Day of Activism, Benue Goes Deeply Orange in Awareness Walk

In ESLF’s continuous bid to raise awareness as part of activities marking the 16 Days of Activism against Sexual and Gender Based Violence, the Foundation among other partners convened over 500 stakeholders to walk the streets of Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria whereafter, we held a stakeholder meeting. These actions are aimed at domesticating the UN Women annual campaign to end all forms of violence especially against women and girls.

Among the participating stakeholders were: Traditional rulers, wives of traditional rulers, members of the Benue State Executive Council, religious leaders, Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government, civil society organisations, women and youth groups as well as captains of industry.

in their various comments at different times, the consensus among stakeholders was the imperative for all to speak out against sexual and gender based violence, end the culture of rape, break the silence, stop stigma and shaming of victims while exposing perpetrators for justice to be served.

Founder/Chairperson ESLF, Dr. Eunice Ortom, committed to carrying out activities targeted at preventing and eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls. She harped on the need for stakeholders to open up channels of communication by making themselves more easily accessible, noting that victims of abuse would be better able to access help when they have persons they can approach when violated.

Also noting the apparent lack of [residential] safe spaces within communities as a cause for the continued incidences of in communities, the ESLF Founder called for stakeholders to unite efforts to provide safe spaces for victims. In her words “we would need to take concerted action to make safe spaces available for our violated women and girls to run to. This is because quite often we are faced with the challenge of accommodating victims, having removed them from abusive homes/environments.”

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#OrangeTheWorld

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