The Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Enugu State Council on Thursday took its campaign against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to major streets of Enugu.
Ikengaonline reports that members of the association converged on Ogui Junction, marched through Ogui Road to Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, passed through Presidential Road and ended at the Press Centre in Rangers Ave.
The acting NAWOJ Chairperson, Comrade Ngozi Ngene who briefed newsmen after the road walk, said that the exercise marked the grand finale of the ’16 Days of Activism for the Campaign Against GBV’.
Ngene said that it had become necessary for the association to get involved in such campaign following the disturbing dimension GBV had assumed.
She said that the association wanted a society were women would freely express themselves without fear of sexual molestation or any other form of violence.
The acting chairperson said that the association would do its best to take such advocacy to rural communities in order to sensitise the rural population.
“NAWOJ is against GBV. We are speaking against it and want a free world for women.
“Our wish is to go to the rural communities to sensitise women about their legal rights. They need to know when their rights are being trampled upon,” she said.
Ngene, however, said that for the campaign against GBV to achieve the desired result, it needed a multi sectoral approach as well as support from men.
She called on victims of GBV to speak up and report such assaults to the appropriate quarters.
“If you keep silent, violence will fester. It can lead to death. We are telling women and men in Enugu to speak out against this ill,” Ngene said.
