Group takes GBV campaign to Nsukka communities

On Mar 30, 2025

Community Life Project (CLP), a non-governmental organisation, has extended its Gender-Based Violence (GBV) awareness outreach to communities in Nsukka Local Government Area of the state.

The campaign, held in Nsukka Town on Saturday, aimed at raising awareness, advocating for workable solutions and inspiring collective action on GBV to foster safer communities for women.

The event was tagged: “The Role of Women Leaders in Nsukka in Building Just and Healthy Families”.

In a speech, the group’s Programme Manager, GBV Project, Celine Osukwu, emphasised the need for collective community action to eliminate the menace.

According to Osukwul, CLP is a non-profit organisation challenging inequality and advancing social justice by empowering marginalised grassroots communities.

She said that GBV compromises different forms of violence and discrimination based on gender, including physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse.

“Today, we are having women session on tackling harmful traditional practices and promoting healthy practices in communities.

“Our target is eliminating GBV, but we have a unique way of approaching it, which is taking the campaign to the grassroots.

“We are focusing on Enugu State and Imo.

“In Enugu State, we chose four communities from Nsukka LGA, including Obige Obukpa, Owere Obukpa, Ogbagu Obukpa and Ejuona Obukpa,” Osukwu said.

She also said that the group had a similar session with traditional rulers, town union presidents, youths, and women groups in Nsukka, while planning to extend the programme to people with disabilities.

She further said that CLP was not in the community to institute new laws introduced to empower communities and build their capacities to enable them tackle issues concerning them.

“Ours is to give them all the necessary support but they are the ones to tackle their issues, we give them the backing and needed support,” she said.

Also speaking, the State Coordinator of the group, Prof. Simon Eze, said that GBV project aimed to educate the society on the need to treat all human beings equal, maintain equity, justice and fairness, without discrimination.

Eze said that the women leaders were trained on the role they should play in building just and healthy families which, according to him, is the foundation of a strong and fair society.

“We trained the women on what a healthy family looks like, characteristics of just and healthy family.

“Tackling GBV requires everyone’s active involvement, hence we took our campaign to the communities to ensure that no one suffers in silence and that everyone was given a sense of belonging.

“CLP remains poised on its drive to fostering inclusive, violence-free society, especially in rural communities, through sustained efforts, advocacy and community engagement,” he said.

A participant from Ejuona Obukpa, Mrs Blessing Chime, commended CLP for bringing the training down to the community.

Chime said that the project would go a long way in ending most of the obnoxious traditions that prevented women from inheriting landed property as well as limiting their social status.

Another participant from Owere Obukpa, Mrs Caroline Ezugwu, said that the training had awakened their conscience on their rights and privileges as women.

Ezugwu said that women were still suffering segregation and marginalisation in the 21st Century, in spite of the numerous campaigns against GBV.

She commended the group for its interventions that had mitigated the violence against women and girls in the country, and urged them to sustain the campaign.

NAN/Wumi