
EU-UN Spotlight Initiative and National Orientation Agency(NOA) Friday took the campaign on violence against children and women to the popular Eke-Imoha market in Ezza South local government area of Ebonyi State.
The community-based road show/rally aimed to raise awareness on the need to report issues about violence against children, violence against women and girls, and gender-based in their various groups in seven selected local governments in the state started from Onueke to the market down to the five communities in the council area.
The program was organized by the National Orientation Agency in the state with support from the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative.
Speaking to Journalists Unah Uchenna, the Programme Officer National Orientation Agency, Ebonyi State, and UNICEF Desk Officer in the agency said that they have discovered that Violence Against Women and Girls(VAWG) was very rampant in seven out of 13 Local Government Areas in Ebonyi State.
Among the local government areas include Ohaukwu, Ohaozara, Onicha, Abakaliki, Ezza South, and Afikpo North.
Unah disclosed that violence against children, women, and girls was still rampant in the seven local governments despite several campaigns against the menace.
“On Tuesday during our road show in one of the seven local governments, we saw many children on the street, hawking on school hours, that is, between 9 am and 11 am. So. the problem is still with us and we are doing everything possible to ensure that these problems are eradicated in our society”, he stated.
He explained that NOA and EU-UN Spotlight Initiative have reached out to millions of people to encourage them on how to report violence against children women and girls in their communities; how to handle the violence issues and how to proffer solutions to the problem and help the victim.
“We spoke to the people on how to report any form of violence against children, women, and girls in real time not waiting for some days, weeks, months before reporting it because this is one of the problems we have in the fight against this menace.
“We also talked to them on how to own up to the program because if a community takes up a program like Violence Against Children, women and girls before reaching out to partners like the Ministry of Women Affairs, national orientation agency, ministry of Justice and others that are working in that field”, he said.
Mrs. Ujebe Nneka, from the Ezzama community who is one of the surveillance teams of NOA and EU-UN in the fight against GBV in the area, urged the people of the local government to report any form of violence against women, children, and girls to the relevant authorities on time.
“We have come to advocate to the people to report any form of violence against women and girls in the community.
There is a need to report any form of GBV in our area. The community members should stop child labor, and child hawking, stop child marriage because they are minors they don’t know what they are doing, stop wife battering, and rape is not allowed, allow widows to inherit their husbands’ properties, and give them land to farm”.
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