On the 9th December, 2024, the Fostering Hopes Foundation, an NGO “empowering communities, one family at a time” joined the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Stand-Up for Women Society (SWS) and Elona Foundation in staging a market sensitization to preach against gender based violence, especially as it affects women and girls.
The team left the NUJ Press Centre in a convoy to the WAZOBIA market along Ibusa Expressway, where they engaged market men and women on issues bordering on gender based violence and abuse of children.
Comrade Sonia Unobunjo, who is the Chairperson of NAWOJ as the lead group, spoke on the need for family love that is devoid of disputes that lead to battering and even death, to reign supreme in our homes.
She encouraged women and men alike to speak up when they are in matrimonial distress, thereby dispelling any culture that abhors separation in a marriage that could lead to death out of violence.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of SWS and Elona Foundation, Comrade Mrs. Stella Macaulay added to the advocacy against gender based violence, calling on individuals indulging in it to have a change of heart.
She therefore exposed her audience to the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act, stating that men and women must take advantage of the law to protect themselves against harm from their spouses and others.
On the part of children, a member of the Delta State Child Rights Implementation Committee and representative of the Fostering Hopes Foundation, Comrade Patrick Ochei explained the Child Rights Act of 2003 which was domesticated in the State in 2008, thereby breaking down the implications of not adhering to the law in dealing with children.
Ochei enjoined the market audience to report any case of child abuse to the Committee, positing that the State Government is more than ever before, serious with its Child Protection and Development policies.
