The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) says it will train 400 Community Development Councils (CDCs) leaders on curbing Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).
Speaking at the ”It’s On Us” programme, tagged: – “Men Wey Sabi”, in Ikeja, the Executive Secretary of DSVA, Mrs Titilola Viviour-Adeniyi said that the 400 CDC leaders would be drawn from the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
Viviour-Adeniyi said that already, 18 local government areas had been reached and two remaining, in the agency’s campaign against SGBV.
She said that there was the need to train the CDC leaders, as they were closer to the community members and would help to point of tackling domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
“SGBV is not a respecter of class, age or local government, it is happening across the state, so what we are trying to do is to engage these community leaders in the local government areas on these issues.
“We want to have them as ambassadors, so that where we cannot go, they will be our foot soldiers, helping us spread this zero tolerance for sexual and gender based violence in the state.
“This is actually a spill off of ”It’s On Us” campaign, where we go to all the local government areas, we have been to 18, we have two more to go.
“These people are drawn from the CDCs, CDAs and the other different community organisations. So are expecting 400 CDC members from the 20 local government areas of the state.
“Our statutory mandate is to embark on sensitisation, enlightenment campaign, and ensure behavioural change in the mindset of individuals,” the executive secretary said.
She said that the ”Man Wey Sabi” campaign was put together with a view to engaging men proactively on issues that pertain to sexual and gender based violence, engaging them on promoting positive masculinity.
Viviour-Adeniyi said that men should not use their role or their strength to abuse the other gender, rather, they should protect the female, as a ”man that knows” believed in gender equity. NAN
