Incidents and issues surrounding Gender Based Violence have continued to draw widespread attention, prompting the need for multi-pronged interventions.
In response to this, the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion has not only issued strong condemnation, but calls on the need to respect and protect human dignity.
In a seminar presentation at the 2024 Divine Commonwealth conference of the Anglican Communion, the call for greater enlightenment, increased awareness, counselling services and renewed partnership resonated.
In a paper delivered by Mrs. Abiodun Ipinmoye, National Coordinator, Anglican Compassion and Development Initiative (ACADI), she noted that violence against women has become a major public health problem that requires concerted efforts. Mrs. Ipinmoye stated that the intervention of the Church represents a call to action, and the Church of Nigeria’s transformational response to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is in recognition of her role in influencing positive change in society.
Illustrating with global, national statistics and sample life cases from the Dioceses, Ipinmoye graphically painted a portrait of the realities.
“Global statistics shows that 1 in 3 women, 30% of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime”.
While on the other hand, 1 in 8 men have experienced one form of Gender-Based Violence or the other. The Ministry of Women Affairs in Nigeria has reported 27,698 cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence between 2020 and 2023″.
Highlighting the negatives effect of sexual violence on a woman’s physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health, and referencing the scripture, she noted that this remains a great concern to the leadership of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion and in obedience to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ that, violence must be shunned.
While attributing sexual violence to some cultural and traditional beliefs that make women and girls vulnerable, she called for a systematic challenge to this belief system, urging the relevant sectors to do more in providing comprehensive health care for the citizens.
She highlighted the efforts and interventions of the Church. “The Church has facilitated the partnership with Ford Foundation which has resulted in an initiative tagged, Church of Nigeria Transformational Response to Gender-Violence.”
The Church of Nigeria has developed a 3-year project in collaboration and assistance from Ford Foundation. The project has thus far run for one year and a total number of 122 Dioceses will be engaged within the next three years, she said.
She also noted that, this initiative had developed advocacy and capacity training programs to build the capacity of the Clergy, their wives and members of the laity. “By the end of November 2024, we would have engaged 67 Dioceses in the CON Prevent GBV Project and trained 737 GBV Master Trainers in 67 dioceses”.
