Centre for Women’s Health and Information (CEWHIN), a non-governmental organisation, has underscored the need to strengthen the capacity of key stakeholders in Lagos State to implement inclusive Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response mechanisms.
CEWHIN emphasised this during a capacity-building workshop on Prevention
and Response to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities (EVAWGWD) organized by the organization for stakeholders and partners in Lagos.
The workshop, held from March 26 to 27, was in collaboration with the Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs (LASODA).
Programme Officer of CEWHIN, Pamela Stephen, said Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a significant public health and human rights concern globally. “In Nigeria, women and girls with disabilities (WGWD) face increased risks due to compounded discrimination, social stigma, and accessibility barriers.
Lagos State has made notable progress in strengthening its GBV prevention and response mechanisms, including establishing the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), the Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs (LASODA), and special courts for handling sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) cases. Despite these advancements, WGWD continues to encounter unique challenges in reporting cases, accessing justice, and receiving adequate support services. This workshop aims to leverage existing structures in Lagos, enhance coordination among stakeholders, and ensure a more inclusive and accessible GBV prevention, protection, and response system tailored to the needs of WGWD.
“This initiative, part of Project Hope, aims to enhance the capabilities of key stakeholders and partners in Lagos State to address and prevent violence against women and girls living with disabilities. The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) is the only global grant-making mechanism dedicated exclusively to addressing all forms of violence against women and girls at local and national levels. To date, the UN Trust Fund has supported 609 organizations in 140 countries and territories. “
One of the facilitators, Alexis Adelu said: “This workshop has opened our eyes to the importance of building the capacities of service providers to ensure that the services they provide are inclusive. When I say inclusive, what I mean is it encompasses the specialties that are involved in providing psychosocial and medical support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, especially women and girls with disabilities.
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“It has also opened our eyes to laws and policies that exist to protect persons with disabilities. So, now we are more empowered, not just in our places of work, but as service providers, to know when somebody comes in with a special capacity, what do we need to do? What are the things we need to do to make this person feel comfortable and not further traumatized.”
Also speaking, the Project Director at VisionSpring Initiatives, Ngozi Nwosu Chuba, described the workshop as participatory, adding that “participants were able to speak their minds. People who already work in the field of protecting the rights of persons with disability were able to share the work that they do.
And even listening to them, I learned a lot. My organization does not do a lot around providing direct services. What we do is prevention.
“But I learned a lot from the work that people do. And what we did was emphasize empathy, and then agree that this is not something that should be left to the government alone. Now, all of us have to work together to ensure that the rights of our brothers and sisters with disabilities are protected in Lagos and even beyond.”
A participant and representative of the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities, Christiana Njoku said as persons with disabilities, “this training has helped us to understand what gender-based violence is, the effect of it on persons with disabilities and also know how to advocate more when it comes to the implementation of various laws that has to protect persons with disabilities on gender-based violence.
“This capacity building has helped persons with disabilities to understand that they have the right to advocate more for their protection and their rights when it comes to gender-based violence.”