The UN Women, the senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe and other stakeholders, have called for increased grassroots actions to end Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).
They made the call Wednesday in Abuja at a media briefing and orange lighting at the UN building, as part of activities to mark this year’s 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence, themed: ‘UNITE! Invest to prevent violence against women and girls’
The UN Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, said the appeal seeks to address a critical gap in existing efforts to combat violence against women and girls.
She said, “We need to work together in unity to deal with this menace in order to achieve a meaningful and sustainable impact. We all need to invest resources, energy and time to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. In Nigeria, 30 per cent of girls and women aged between 15 and 49 reported having experienced sexual abuse. These unfortunate realities of our time call for collective and systematic efforts in dealing with the menace.”
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On her part, Kingibe, while advocating grassroots campaign against SGBV, said: “In the FCT, I have got something called Orange allowed, which is down to all the wards because I cannot know when a woman is being violated in Nyanya when I am in Maitama. Towards the end of the 16 days, we’ll be calling for Orange marshals. Everybody will go online and sign and you will then be the monitoring body in your respective communities.”