USAID-SCALE Commends ESLF For Standard Financial Management, SGBV Policies.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project named Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE), has commended Eunice Spring of Life Foundation (ESLF) for putting strong financial and protection policies in place to guide implementation of the organisation’s programmes in line with global best practice.

The Chief of Party, USAID-SCALE Nigeria, Lydia Odeh who gave this commendation last Friday when she led her team on a visit to ESLF’s Office in Makurdi, Benue State, attested that the proper policies in place at ESLF were proofs of the significant impact of the capacity building workshops funded by SCALE and implemented by Caritas Nigeria to train Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) like ESLF on policies that strengthen their systems.

Odeh disclosed that the visit was to appreciate ESLF for being among organisations that carry out the actual execution of the SCALE-prescribed policies, protocols and principles on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) as well as financial procedures in organisations as imparted on organisations during the training workshops.

The Chief of Party who asserted that an organisation like ESLF has the capacity to remain in the trenches long after projects like SCALE and other interventions with limited lifespans would have packed up, observed that the ESLF Hospital would be of interest to donor agencies as it holds the potentials for strategic partnership that might require the hospital to be a service centre for SGBV survivors especially in the face of the need for a functional Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) currently lacking in the State.

Attesting to ESLF’s standard policies and practice, the Vulnerable Population Manager (VPM) at SCALE Nigeria, Evelyn Ugbe, affirmed that “ESLF is one of the very progressive organisations that took the SCALE-sponsored training forward by instituting case management protocol, having a case register, using the referral pathways for reporting SGBV and working extensively as seen in the periodic reports of ESLF’s activities to SCALE”.

Addressing the team, ESLF’s Coordinating Programme Officer, Health and Gender, Karen Erdoo Yankyaa, praised SCALE for its good work in strengthening the capacities of organisations and improving their network which, she admitted, has enabled ESLF to improve in its various programmes and humanitarian service delivery to beneficiaries.

Enumerating the gains of the SCALE-sponsored trainings for ESLF, Yankyaa said they have made the Foundation to be much more intentional in mainstreaming SGBV sensitisation and safeguard policies into ALL its programmes, improved ESLF’s knowledge on SGBV, SGBV service providers, referral pathways and strengthened networking with CSOs and networks in the SGBV space.

In addition, she said the trainings have helped in improving ESLF’s internal policies that protect staff of the organisation, its medical team, clients and beneficiaries, Improved SGBV survivors register, confidentiality of clients and survivors, consent forms, financial management system, awareness creation and SGBV sensitisation in communities.

Yankyaa maintained that the ESLF Hospital has a strong staff strength of professionals ranging from experienced clinical psychologists to various categories of medical workers and offers psycho-social support services that is inclusive of skills acquisition trainings as well as a mental rehabilitation centre.

ESLF, she added, boasts of a special desk for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) that is manned by a Desk Officer to ensure inclusion of PWDs especially survivors of SGBV in the organisation’s programmes. She sought for capacity building of staff to further enhance their skills in the clinical management of survivors of SGBV.