MOBILIZING COMMUNITY ACTION TO ADDRESS SEXUAL-BASED VIOLENCE AGAINST GIRLS
The project aims at achieving the following:
1. To strengthen collaboration with community leaders, men and boys to address negative social cultural norms on SGBV against girls in three communities (Bwari) in the FCT
2. To strengthen community-based structures to prevent and respond to SGBV against girls in the three communities
3. To build the capacity of in and out-school adolescent girls in the three project communities in the FCT to address SGBV and assert their fundamental human right.
PROMOTING STAFF WELLNESS AND RESILIENCE FOR EFFECTIVE RESPONSE TO SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE PROGRAMMING
Within the first three months of operation of the SOAR Child and Teen Support Centre, during the COVID-19 lockdown, the Centre received 222 calls for information, counselling and crisis response.
Even before the lockdown the rates of SGBV and particularly sexual based violence against children were already prevalent.
According to the relief web report that was published in June 2020, 1in every 3 girls has experienced at least one form of sexual violence before the age of 25.
The demand was met by a limited staff strength with stretched services that lacked the expertise of a professional psychologist/mental health practitioner to meet the needs of our clients.
Staff were also unable to take sufficient work breaks, even after the active lockdown phase. In addition to this, the absence of an organisational plan or policy to address staff mental health and wellness in the face of pressing work demands led to unhealthy rates of presenteeism, high-stress levels and stress-related illnesses which are all negatively affecting productivity at the Centre.
These issues mentioned were also the reality of SGBV responders generally and in the FCT specifically. The issues identified covered experiences of other responders and partners in the field and not just SOAR.
In a bid to ensure better service delivery and welfare of staff and other SGBV responders in the FCT, the organization saw the CARE-GBV project as a project that will fulfil these objectives which include:
1. Building the capacity of the SOAR Staff and members of the Network of Sexual and Gender-based violence Response Team in Abuja, FCT to improve on survivor-centred GBV response programming
2.Promoting staff wellness & resiliency of SOAR Staff and members of the Network of Sexual and Gender-based violence Response Team in Abuja, FCT for effective implementation of SGBV programming through improved practices and their organisational culture
STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES-IN-EMERGENCIES TO ADDRESS SEXUAL BASED VIOLENCE AGAINST GIRLS, WITHIN THE COVID19 PANDEMIC CONTEXT, IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA
Benue State in Nigeria hosts over 60% of the IDPs found in the 3 states affected by the farmer-herdsmen crisis in North Central with the worst hit being women and children affected by high rates of sexual violence. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable since they are neither classified as children or women, and so are often left behind in interventions. This made them particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown where interventions in the camps were non-existent.
Therefore, girls who suffered sexual based violence cope alone with the trauma since the culture of silence, fear of victim blaming, shame and stigma keep them from disclosing while preventing those at risk from receiving much needed information required to protect them.
This 3year project will therefore ensure that community and opinion leaders, including men and boys in IDP camps and host communities across Benue State are mobilised to address low information about, and socio-cultural norms which continue to perpetuate sexual based violence against girls (SBVAG) and prevent survivors from reporting, particularly within the present COVID-19 pandemic context. In and out of school adolescent girls will also be empowered, as part of the solution, to address SBVAG, by having their capacities built to recognise the abuser’s approach, refuse it, assert their rights, disclose sexual abuses and seek support services.
This project will contribute to these changes by developing and strengthening child protection/watch groups and female community volunteers and empowering them to implement action plans needed to prevent SBVAG and support survivors to identify and access much-needed multi-sectorial services through improved technology.
The goal of the project is that: in and out of school adolescent girls in IDP camps in Benue State, at increased risk of sexual violence and exploitation due to risk factors made worse by the pandemic, have improved safety, well-being and support by April 2024
GRASSROOTS INTERVENTION PROJECT AGAINST CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE (GRIP-CSA)
The goal of this project is to change gender inequitable norms, attitudes and behaviours of community members in Kuje, Gwagwalada and Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the FCT which continue to encourage sexual violence of children and particularly girls while also preventing disclosures of this crime due to the culture of silence.
SENSITIZATION AND CREATION OF SAFE SPACES IN 60 SCHOOLS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT INITIATIVE
Creating Safe Spaces in educational institutions that provide remedial lessons and life skills such as leadership, self-esteem, communication, negotiation, assertiveness and refusal skills to girls at risk of dropping out of school to prevent VAWG/SGBV/HP and access SRHR in FCT. Sixty (60) project schools in AMAC and Bwari Area Council.
MOBILIZING COMMUNITIES TO END SBV AGAINST GIRLS IN DUTSE & WHUMBA COMMUNITY
The project mobilised grassroots communities and schools to develop local mechanisms to protect girls from sexual violence in two communities in the Municipal Area Council of Abuja. The UNTF project targets 2 project communities located in the Abuja Municipal Area Council of the FCT.