24th October, 2022
The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence (DSVA) has begun training for Community Development Committees (CDCs) leaders in Local Government areas of the state to be ambassadors against Sexual and Domestic-Based Violence (SGBV).
Executive Secretary of DSVA, Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi disclosed this on Monday at ”It’s On Us” programme, tagged: ”Men Wey Sabi.”
She said the agency would train 400 CDCs leaders in curtailing SGBV, saying that the participants would cut across the 20 LGs in Lagos.
According to her, 18 LGs had been reached, with two reminding, in the agency’s campaign against SGBV.
Vivour-Adeniyi said there was need to train the CDC leaders, as they were closer to the community members and would help in tackling domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
In her words: ”Sexual and gender based violence is not a respecter of class, age or local government, it is happening across the state, so what we are trying to do is to engage these community leaders in the local government on these issues.
”We want to have them as ambassadors, so that where we cannot go, they will be our foot soldiers, helping us spread this zero tolerance for sexual and gender-based violence in the state.
”This is actually a spill off of ”It’s On Us” Campaign, where we go to all the local governments, we have been to 18, we have two more to go.
”These people are drawn from the CDCs, CDAs and the other different community organisations. So we are expecting 400 CDC members from the 20 local government areas.
”Our statutory mandate is to embark on sensitisation, enlightenment campaign, and ensure behavioural change mindset of individual.”
Vivour-Adeniyi added thatt the ”Man Wey Sabi” campaign was put together with a view to engaging men proactively on issues that pertain to sexual and gender-based violence, engaging them on promoting positive masculinity.
The Executive Secretary stated that men should not use their role or their strength to abuse the other gender, rather, they should protect the female, as a ”man that knows” believed in gender equity.
One of the facilitators, Kazeem Olanipekun, Teenage Career Development Expert said that both the husband and wife had complementary roles to play to ensure that the society was rid of sexual and gender-based violence.
He explained that both the male and female had strengths and weaknesses and that these were bound to manifest, so both of them should work on the strength and weaknesses.
Olanipekun stated that the husband should recognise the strength of the woman and capitalise on it for the betterment of the home, saying that being the head as a man does not mean that the man is superior to the woman.
Speaking on the topic on Positive Masculinity (Understanding and Respecting Female Gender), Kingsley Obom-Egbulem, Talent Manager said that it was important to train the men on solutions to SGBV.
Obom-Egbulem said that if men were part of the problem, it was only normal that they become part of the solution.
He said that the men folk needed to be educated, and have some understanding that women should be respected.
”So, you need to have an understanding of how these problems evolved, the kind of socialisation that informs the problem and how we got to where we are.
”So it is important to also know that it is not just a man’s problem. It is a problem that began even while we were boys, so the average boy has been socialised to believe that he is important, or rather he is more important than his female counterparts in the school.
”There are some schools where a girl cannot be a senior prefect. Those are reinforcing some of these gender stereotypes that fuels violence against women,” he said.