By Musa Baba Adamu
The Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) concerned with the plight of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), said its Amplifying Voices Project has given hopes and aspirations to the PWDs in the society.
The Executive Director, IFA, Grace Jerry, made this known at the Investiture of Award of Excellence on 66 Young Advocates with Disabilities in Nigeria and the Launch of Training Manual for Gender Based Violence in Nigeria, yesterday in Abuja.
She said in the course of its engagements, IFA had discovered that discrimination, stigma and stereotype aide in building culture of silence among survivors of various forms of violence.
As a result, she said IFA began Amplifying Voices Project last year with the objective of training young persons with disabilities as Fellows to combat gender based violence.
She said IFA “saw the need to build a network of youth advocates with disabilities and improve their capacity to spotlight and innovatively address incidences of gender based violence against women and girls with disabilities across the country.”
She said the advocates, having received the requisite trainings, carried out several activities including media appearances, Community and faith based sensitization and made some key findings.
Drawing from the experiences of the advocates in the field, she said IFA concluded that there was the need for the PWDs, their family members and care givers to be enlightened on what constitutes gender based violence.
She said the Project had given the PWDs opportunity to be aware of themselves and the issues that bother on any form of violence experienced and how to tackle it effectively.
She said: “Members of the public were sentisitized through community engagements and Media outreaches to understand that things they ordinarily saw as normal.”
For their laudable efforts, she disclosed that “ Advocates on this Project have gotten recognition, scholarships, political appointments, Fellowship placement and participation in other international leadership programs.
“They have done exceedingly well and are still engaging to combat Disability Based Violence across the country. As an organization, IFA will continue to give them all the support they need to succeed as Advocacy is a lifelong affair.”
In her remarks, the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, described the gender based violence as one of the most horrendous crimes against humanity.
She praised the IFA for taking up the advocacy, calling on other groups to cue in in the efforts.
She said under her leadership the number of states that had domesticated Child Rights Act had moved from nine to 33.
She said the remaining states yet to domesticate the legislation were on the verge of doing as her Ministry was resting on its oars.
The Awards were handed out to the Awardees by the Minister as the highlight of the event.
