Int’l Alert Trains 40 On Psychological First Aid For SGBV Survivors
http://www.newsportng.com.ng International Alert, (IA) with support from the United Kingdom Aid, (UKaid) has trained atleast 40 stakeholders on psychological First Aid to victims of Sexual Gender-Based Violence, (SGBV) in Kaduna state.
The community first responders (Participants) who were trained, cut across the Police, NSCDC, health workers among others.
Speaking at the two-day training for community first responders on: Psychological First Aid,
supporting women/girls in the aftermath of abuse in Kaduna on Monday and Tuesday, respectively the Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Officer, IA Fatima Inusa, said the community first responders were those who survivors of SGBV contact first after their abuse.
Fatima noted that training the first responders was aimed at equipping them with skills in how to administer psychosocial support to victims of SGBV.
According to her, at most instances when victims visit safety or security agencies, doctors, nurses and other responders of SGBV, they don’t get the required information or support they need.
She explained that due to improper documentation and lack of respect for data protection protocols which entails not sharing of survivors information without their consent, the training of the first responders became critical so that the responders can know their duty when the need arises.
Fatima therefore said the NGO also empowers women on broader scale in reducing SGBV, through providing them with accurate information as it relates to their wellbeing and when abuse occurs.
She stressed that, “We also include men in our engagements, because even the male gender also face SGBV. This is why we are engaged in the training, so as to equip responders with skills to make it possible and available for survivors to be be open enough to trust them and report cases to them,” she said.
Speaking with Journalists shortly after the event, the Center Manager for Salama Sexual Assault Referral Center, Kakuri Kaduna, Nankat T. Ndam, disclosed that they get reports regularly across their four centers in Kaduna town.
Ndam lamented that they have female survivors as majority even though they have male survivors but several people keep quiet because there is a lot of stigma around SGBV, hence the need to support survivors so they can come out to break the culture of silence in other for them to bring perpetrators to book and get justice for victims.
She also disclosed that the four centers in Kaduna town record cases of 20-30 survivors every month.
Ndam said, “priority is always given to the survivors. What we practice is called survivor centered approach. It means that we are concerned more about the survivors’ wellbeing and also the support they get from the moment they are abused, medical attention and psychosocial support till the stage where they report to the station and then get justice. So we give priority to survivors not perpetrators.”
