To enhance the capacity and advocacy skills of community women leaders and advocate for the promotion and protection of women’s rights in Anambra State, WomenAid Collective (WACOL) in collaboration with the Ford Foundation had two-day training.
The workshop, which also witnessed the inauguration of “50/50 Action Women,” aimed to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in the state.
A statement signed and made available to Business Day by the founding director of WACOL, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo affirmed that the workshop was necessitated by the recent spike in abuse of women in Anambra State communities.
Ezeilo, who is also a professor at the University of Nigeria Nsukka as well as the former United Nations Special Rapporteur, said: “It could be recalled that in a video that went viral recently, a widow was stripped naked, assaulted, and paraded in the marketplace in Aguleri.
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“Similarly, in the Nanka community, also in the same state, a widow was also ejected from her home, and left in the cold barely a few days after her husband’s demise. Both incidents drew strong condemnation, and protests from NGOs and concerned individuals across Nigeria and beyond.”
To her, the inauguration of 50/50 action women in Anambra would actively engage with critical stakeholders, including traditional and religious leaders to eliminate harmful social norms and practices that result in discrimination and violence against women and girls.
Participants were drawn from the civil society, academia, MDAs, female entrepreneurs, community women leaders, including female youths in the state.
