A Non-Govermental Organisation, Freedom For Life Initiative, FFLI has trained and sensitised twenty (20) women on COVID-19 prevention measures and the effect of Gender Base Violence in Wamakko local government area, Sokoto.
Speaking shortly after the training at Haliru Rijiya Primary School Gwiwa, the Project Director, Hassan Muhammad Ladan said the training was a project under Risk Communication and Community Engagement which was supported by United Nations Population Fund, (UNFPA).
According to him, the training was organised to reach out to local communities that have the highest number of COVID-19 incident in Sokoto.
“Wammakko is one of local government happened to be affected by COVID-19, therefore we decided to use the opportunity to gather women to sensitise them on how to follow Nigerian Center for Disease Control, NCDC guidelines to be protected and stay safe,” he said.
Mr Ladan further explained that many women were not aware of the effect of Gender Base Violence and abuse where many of their rights were denied.
He said the training would enable the women to be able to identify various abuses and know where to report any incidence.
Mr Ladan told the women the appropriate authorities to report such cases include; NAPTIP, Human Rights Commission, Child Protection Network, Nigeria Police and among others.
Ladan said the trained women would be Freedom For Life Initiative Ambassadors as the knowledge they acquired would be passed to the general public for adherence to COVID-19 protocols.
He urged all relevant Stakeholders to put hand on desk to stop the spread of COVID-19 and bring an end to the killer disease.
Mr Ladan also commended UNFPA for their support towards the full implementation of the training.
The Project Director however commended Sokoto State government for their support through the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning towards actualising the training.
Also speaking was the Executive Director of organisation, Mr Sani Bello, who said the reason for organising the training was to sensitise women on the effect of gender base violence, COVID-19 and it’s prevention measures.
Mr Bello explained that the awareness training become necessary due to high rate of women and children abuse among communities, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“Due to increase in rate of women and children abuse during lockdown, we found it very important to educate them on the effect of the incidence and for them to also learn measures to stop the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
He urged the trained women to use the knowledge acquired to educate other members of the society for the overall health benefits of the people.
A paper was presented by a facilitator with the NGO, Halima Zubairu, on COVID-19, highlighted it’s signs and symptoms and how to avoid contracting the disease.
Some of the beneficiaries, Saratu Abdullahi and Rukayya Ibrahim, described the training as timely and commendable.
They gave assurance that the experience acquired during the training would be shared among their respective communities for the overall health benefits of the society.
Lateefah Ibrahim
