15th March, 2018
Photo; Buzz South Africa
A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Project Alert on Violence Against Women, has called on federal and state governments to reduce filing fee for cases of gender violence.
Nsini Udonta, the Shelter Administrator and Counselor of the NGO, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
Udonta said that most NGOs were now faced with low funds due to the new challenges encountered by NGOs for victims of severe gender abuse.
Udonta said that most times victims of severe abuse would storm NGOs to demand for services outside their mandate.
According to her, a woman can walk in here and all I need to do is to calm the woman and talk to her and she will leave smiling.
“But some will come, you try calming her down, but she doesn’t look calm and she tells you she doesn’t have the resources to go back home.
“As a result, you find yourself sometimes using your lunch or transport money to support a victim back home,” Udonta said.
She said that such services were outside the mandate of NGOs to victims of sexual, emotional and physical abuses.
Udonta appealed for funding from governments or reduce filing fee for NGOs to meet the new challenges outside their mandate.
She reminded the government of the numerous programmes of NGOs such as support services programme, human right advocacy and skills empowerment that should be sustained for the development of better society.