Side by side movement in Nigeria, has stormed Kaduna State, to sensitive the community on the need to end Violence against women and uphold the sanctity of the girl child.
The campaign took place in Kawo on Wednesday with relevant stakeholders in attendance to chat some of the possible ways forward in other to curtail those challenges confronting the female race and encourage them not to give up in the course of pursuing their dreams.
Addressing newsmen during the event, one of the facilitators and the National Coach, Side by Side Movement in Nigeria, Rev. Dr. Joseph John Hayap, described Violence such as rape, early marriage and other related crimes against women as evil that is mostly perpetrated by those living around them, appealed to commuters particularly religious and traditional leaders to voice out and save women from the dangers.
He further expressed that gender Violence is not only limited to the above mentioned points but also cover the area of husband beating their wives, while others stopped them from participating in extractive work that will be of benefit for the common good of the society.
Another Facilitator, Hajiya Amina Kazaure of Vision Trust Foundation, who shared her thought from the perspective of a Medical Doctor, also lamented the fact that figures on Violence against women is on the rise daily despite the measures put in place to curtail the acts.
In her word “It is highly unfortunate that the figures are rising in as much as there are lots of Advocating and other things put in place. But then, what we need more is sensitization for people to open up because there is a fear of stigma from the people that they do not want people to know what is happening but within the community we know that the figure is really adding up.
“The implication is that crime is on the rise in the society including women. So sensitizations are not too many because the more we talk about it, the more people tends to believe about them. We made it very practical so that people can be stakeholders in their respective communities to know what to do. If they work together as team in the community, there will be a positive response. so we have hope. She said
The District Head of Kawo, Kaduna State, Mallam Jibril Muhammed Magaji, who is also the member of the Advocacy group expressed that as a Muslim, the quran taught expressely that seeking of knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim without excluding women, therefore parents must put more effort to give quality education to their children without excluding the female counterparts.
“No community should hide anybody found guilty of rape and other violence offences. Rather, they should bring them out to be punished by the government. Jibril added.
