DATE CONDUCTED: Wednesday 22^nd June, 2022

TIME FRAME: 10:00am – 12:50pm

With the alarming rate of sexual assault, domestic violence, intimate partner battery, child abuse, rape and murder of women and girls of all ages around our nation, the Nigerian Women Trust Fund with National Institute for Leadership and Ending Violence against Women and Girls (NILEVAWG) lunched a mentorship program to sensitize and enlighten the public on the impact of violence against women and girls, to break the bias for women in leadership and development, thereby availing them the opportunity to be impact makers and change agents in the society.

ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES

Plateau State NILEVAWG Mentees in collaboration with their mentor carried out capacity building training in Rikkos Community Secondary School, Jos North; which brought in 14 participants (10 students and 4 teachers). The capacity building training incorporated the following topics which was handled by the mentees and mentor respectively: Gender and Sex with Examples; VAWG/GBV and its implications; modalities to reduce the prevalence of VAWG/GBV and the reason for the establishing VAWG/GBV Club in the school.

Conversations that erupted around the subject from the students and staff in attendance was a clear indication that this engagement was indeed crucial and timely. Most of the students admitted to the fact that the training was indeed an eye opener on many incidences of GBV/VAWG that could be happening around them but they couldn’t recognize it as violence while some did recognize such incidences as violence but don’t know how to go about it. These feedbacks enabled us to establish a GBV/VAWG club in the school as a medium for reporting GBV/VAWG cases as well as for greater enlightenment and sustainability purpose. The teachers and students committed to take up the responsibility of running the activities of the club as a build-up of what they’ve learnt from the training as well as sensitize other students and Rikkos community at large on the dangers of VAWG/GBV and the need to break the culture of silence thereby speaking-up and standing-up against all forms of GBV/VAWG in their school, homes and community at large. The Plateau State NILEVAWG Mentees left their numbers with the teachers and students to enable them quickly report any case of VAWG/GBV around them.

On a general note, the hospitality and reception from the school authority, the teachers and students involved is indeed commendable.

CHALLENGES

• Materials for awareness creation: the few posters and stickers that was given to the established VAWG/GBV club for more awareness creation was gotten from Int’l Centre for Peace, Charities and Human Development (INTERCEP) and Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment in Nigerian Society (CWEENS), which was not sufficient. Therefore, we are soliciting that NWTF should please send us some materials like simplified copies of booklets or pamphlets on VAWG/GBV, posters, stickers etc. that we can use to establish more GBV/VAWG clubs as we plan to engage other schools in the coming month.

• Refreshment: considering that students will be engaged for a number of hours to achieve maximum results, we figured that light refreshment for them will be an encouragement to get their undivided attention. The Mentees and Mentor contributed tokens among themselves which they used to get light refreshment for the participants.

We are also pleading with NWTF to kindly look into at least providing light refreshment for participants which will go a long way to also facilitate maximal impact during our subsequent engagements with schools.