Lagos, UNFPA Fight Gender-Based Violence

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Mr Amofokhai Audu was getting ready to sleep in his apartment at Abule Egba area of Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, when he suddenly heard a loud thud in front of his flat. This was immediately followed by the distressed cry of a woman. He rushed out with his wife, Ulelu only to discover a female neigbour who lived in one of the flat upstairs groaning in pains.

What happened? She had just jumped from the balcony of a story building downstairs. Why? Her husband who is a drunkard and an Indian hemp smoker had threatened to pour petrol on her. To save her life, she jumped down from the first storey building.

The Audus were amazed, what a wicked man the husband must be.

Apart from this scenario, the same man had on several occasions beaten his wife black and blue, called her a witch and kicked her out of the house, among other cruel acts.

Worse still, she had nowhere to go as her parents were dead and she has no living relatives. She refused to report her case to the Lagos State Government for help because she feared that the man might do away with her forever and for the sake of the children the marriage had produced.

Recently, a woman was reported beaten to death by her husband at Orile Area of Lagos State for no reason. At Ayobo area of the state, a man reportedly defied 12 children in the vicinity. In another case recently, another man in rage poured hot water on his wife, thus, disfiguring her for life.

These are few of the thousands of cases of Gender-Based Violence, GBV, mostly targeted at women and the girl child, with lesser of such cases affecting men. Over the years, violence against women and girls has been a thorny issue that successive governments have tried to address.

GBV, according to the United Nations, is any act of violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in private or public life. It is violence directed at women/young girls because they are women and young girls.

The World Health Organisation, WHO in 2002, defines violence broadly as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person or against group of community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation.”

According to former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, “for every woman and girl violently attacked, we reduce our humanity. For every woman forced into unprotected sex because men demand this, we destroy dignity and pride. For every woman who has to sell her life for sex, we condemn to lifetime in prison. For every woman we remain silent, we conspire against our women. For every woman infected by HIV, we destroy a generation.”

In recent times in Lagos State, there have been a rising wave of domestic violence against women. Cases of minors being defiled have been on the increase despite the signing of the Child Rights Law and Domestic Violence law by the state government.

Domestic violence in the home is very common, and no less a problem than violence in the street. People, especially women and children are often physically or sexually injured, and in some cases, they die. Men, children, househelps can also be victims of domestic violence; though women and young girls are often the victims.

Domestic violence is a national problem and occurs among the rich and educated people in the society. Male children witnessing assault on their mother or any female are 1,000 times more likely to be batterers as adult than those who did not witness such violence. Forty to 60 per cent of men who abuse women also abuse children, reports have said. Domestic violence takes the forms of physical, sexual, emotional and economic abuse.

It was in a bid to address increasing wave of domestic violence against women and children that the Lagos State Government, in conjunction with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and Project Alert, organised training for 100 health workers in Lagos State on responding to GBV. The event, facilitated by Project Alert on violence against women was held at the Lagos Building Investment Company, LBIC, Ikeja.

The workshop focused on understanding GBV, Human Right and the Link; Understanding the Signs: Red Flags for Health Workers/Health Consequences of GBV; Examination, Documentation and Reporting; Communicating with Survivors: Risk Assessment and Safety and Role of Health Workers/Facilities and 10-Point Intervention Strategy.

Director, Women Affairs, Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, WAPA, Mrs. Folashade Ogunnaike, said unlike in the past, GBV is more reported now as many Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs had sprung up to champion campaigns against violence and render assistance to battered women.

She lamented that violence against women was really a challenge faced by women, saying that reporting of GBV had now gone to the fore for the public and government institutions to know.

“Rape against women and the girl child is very common these days. We have heard of cases of husband killing wives.

Domestic violence against women may start with a minor quarrel. We have openly decried such development and we have provided an avenue for people to seek redress.

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“There is now a law against violence on women and also the Child Rights Law. This programme is to train 100 health workers on Gender-Based Violence. The UNFPA is partnering with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, WAPA, to enlighten the health workers and to let them know that these cases are real,” she said.

She called on the public to report cases of violence against women to the state government for appropriate action even those affected were not willing to report such cases.

“My advise is that when you see somebody going through challenges, you can report such case. When cases are reported and people see these cases, assistance will come. A lot of us come from such cultural background that we don’t want our family to break; we have the Office of Public Defender to help in this case by rendering free legal service to abused women. Government is determined to fight cases of abuse against women,” she stated.

Speaking on Understanding Gender-Based Violence, Dr. Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, Executive Director, Project Alert said the aim of the workshop was to increase participants’ knowledge and understanding of GBV, its form and health implications as well as improve their skills in handling female victims of GVA.

Speaking on Understanding the Signs: Red Flags for Health Workers/Health Consequences of GBV, Effah-Chukwuma said some of the red flags to watch out for are injuries inconsistent with explanation of cause; women trying to hide injuries or minimize their extent, history of repeated miscarriages, terminations, still births or pre-term labour, non-compliance with treatment and suicidal attempts.

Other signs to watch out for, she said, were whether the partner is aggressive or dominant; whether the woman is submissive or afraid to speak in front of her partner; injuries to the breast or abdomen, recurring sexually transmitted infections or urinary tract infections, early self discharge from hospital, among others.

“While none of the above signs automatically indicates domestic abuse, they should however raise suspicion and prompt you to make every attempt to see the woman alone and in private to ask her if she is being abused. Even if she chooses not to disclose at this time, she will know you are aware of the issue and she might choose to approach you at a later time,’ she explained.

Stressing the need for health workers to identify with victims of GBV, she said “the goal of intervening with victims is not to make them separate from abusers, but give them the information and support they need t make their own decisions. Therefore, if a perpetrator accompanies a victim, clinicians may hear the minimizing, denying or lying about domestic violence as well as the victim blaming.

“Children also very often show signs of the abuse if they witness violence against their mothers at home: fear, nightmares, hyperactivity, depression and isolation. It is helpful to view the victim’s emotions and behaviours as normal reactions to the perpetrators’ abuse and as the victim attempts to protect themselves and their children.”

According to her Effah-Chukwuma, the health consequence of GBV included death, acute chronic physical injuries, acute and chronic disability, fatigue, exhaustion, heart attack, suicidal thoughts, self harm, loss of self-esteem, feeling of guilt and difficulty breathing.

“Some other consequences are vulnerability to infection from lack of information, deteriorating conditions from restricted health screening and lack of treatment; vulnerability to infection and abuse due to restricted access to work advice from peers; shunned, rejected by family, community, society or boyfriend.

“There is also the consequence of contracting HIV/AIDS, unwarranted pregnancy, pregnancy complications, miscarriage and low birth weight. There is also the possibility of getting sexually transmitted infections and related complications, including pelvic inflamatory disease, urinary tract infections, cervical cancer and infertility,” she stated.

“It is thus important that as health workers, the signs ‘red flags’ of abuse  are detected early enough in patients who come to our medical facilities so that some of these consequences can be prevented,” she added.

Speaking on Examination and Documentation of GBV, facilitator, Effah-Chukwuma said pictures needed to be taken to identify injuries or body maps, adding that when using such pictures, the victim’s consent should be sought.

“Describe specifics about incidents: who inflicted the violence, the perpetrator’s abusive conduct, health impact on survivor, if the perpetrator uses alcohol/drugs and/or weapons.

Sexual violence examination shall ideally be conducted by gynaecologists or forensic experts, especially trained on GBV. It is not guaranteed that the survivor will have access to a sensitized gynaecologist or forensic expert, general care providers have to document the injuries,” she said.

She stated that, “health workers should document GBV for good clinical care purpose; for medical practitioners/health worker’s legal issues as well as for the patient’s legal issue,” adding that precaution needs to be taken during examination of an abused victim.

At the end of the workshop, participants were challenged on the need to collaborate with the government and UNFPA to eradicate cases of GBV or help mitigate the impact on the victims

—Kazeem Ugbodaga

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