Women at Risk International Foundation has called for awareness around gender-based violence.
Speaking at a media parley, founder of WARIF, Dr Kemi DaSilva- Ibru, explained that sadly, most girls were survivors of one form of active violence or the other before the age of 18 in Nigeria.
Ibru added that as an organisation it had been caring for the survivors by providing health needs, education needs, and community service.
“We have all heard of how the girls are survivors of one form of active violence or the other before the age of 18 in Nigeria. Nigeria is a young country where 64% of our population are under the age of 24 and so on average, we’re looking at almost 12,000 girls that are subjected daily to one act of violence or the other. As an organisation, we have intentionally tackled the problem under our three pillars, health, education, and community service.”
She revealed that through the Worry-Free Crisis Centre, WARIF had been able to cater to the health needs of the survivors.
“Our health pillar is at the Worry-Free Crisis Centre. It is a post-incident facility that offers free care as well as medical attention, social counseling, and social welfare to all girls and women. Based on our conversations earlier, we are now aware of the statistics and we’ve seen close to almost 4,500 beneficiaries already at the centre since we opened our doors in December 2016. “It’s not enough to have a haven, now, what’s important is to inform the public of this safe space.”
Ibru emphasised that there was a need to break the culture of silence and stigmatisation.
“The educational pillar and the community service pillar serve as a preventative measure. We know that our environment at times encourages these acts of violence, that our community shames and blames the survivor forcing her to remain silent and placing a stigma upon her. We need to break this culture of silence. We need to break the stigma.”
