The Salama Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Kafanchan in Kaduna State has taken the campaign of ending violence against women and girls to schools as part of 16-day activism against gender-based violence.
The centre is one of four in the state where victims of rape and other gender-based violence receive free counselling, medical and optional legal interventions.
Arewa Trust Weekly reports that in collaboration with the Centre for Integrated Health Programmes (CIHP), the centre lectured students at secondary schools in Kafanchan on how violence against women manifests in physical, sexual and psychological forms.
At Government Secondary School Kafanchan, the Centre’s Manager, Mrs Grace Abbin, decried the increased rate of violence against women, noting that it remains an obstacle to achieving equality as well as fulfilment of women and girls’ human rights.
She maintained that while gender-based violence can also happen to men and boys, women and girls were more vulnerable. According to her, the centre recorded 70 cases of sexual assault, mostly against women and girls in Kafanchan in the month of October.
Also speaking, the centre’s physician, Dr Gideon Goje, encouraged victims to overlook the issue of stigma and report to the centre within 72 hours of abuse to enable medical experts to examine them so as to secure the conviction of offenders.
In his remarks, the school’s Principal, Mr Simon Yusuf, enjoined the students to make the most of the knowledge acquired in making society violent free and better for all.
