Resilience building program for Combating GBV in Borno State

The issue of Gender based violence or GBV as it is also called is a topic not to be discussed in a rush as it has to do strictly with the violation(s) of weaker humans. GBV is an issue of global concern, but it is more pronounced in African countries where there is a prevalence of a patriarchy, poverty, terrorism, human right abuses, inequality, etc. 

Gender-based violence (GBV) is the most pervasive yet least visible human rights violation in the Africa. It includes physical, sexual, mental or economic harm inflicted on a person because of socially ascribed power imbalances between males and females. It also includes the threat of violence, coercion and deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private.

In most African societies, women and girls have less power than men – over their bodies, decisions and resources. Social norms that condone men’s use of violence as a form of discipline and control reinforce gender inequality and perpetuate gender-based violence. Women and girls especially adolescents face the greatest risk because they have been made the most vulnerable and in most cases have been suppressed and as a result are termed the ‘weaker sex’, which consequently imprints in their psyche this very obnoxious doctrine and actually makes them appear weaker and by the virtue of that, they give in to the negative societal menace of VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.

Global estimates published by WHO indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. 

Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner in their lifetime. 

Globally also, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner. 

Violence can negatively affect women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health, and may increase the risk of acquiring HIV in some cases.

Amnesty International (2017) reported that countless women and girls in Nigeria particularly in the north east are subjected to violence by some members of their families and their communities. This might be attributed to some reasons that may range from the poor justice system, lack of will to prosecute offenders of GBV, patriarchal nature of most societies in Africa and in particular, the northern states, misunderstanding of Islamic religion (which is the predominant religion in the northern states) viz-a-viz the misunderstanding of the teaching in the Holy Quran with respect to the position of women in the society. Some have misconstrued the teaching to imply that women are far lesser in dignity to men and as such can be owned as properties order than as humans and collaborators of their male counterparts 

Borno state is not outside the scope of this discourse, as cases of GBV have been so pronounced in this state. The Borno State Government through the ministry of women affairs on December of 2021 confirmed that 4,104 cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) were reported among female and male victims between January and July of 2021 alone. The Ministry of Women Affairs disclosed that the victims comprised 3,805 females and 239 victims in various communities of the state. This violence range from but is not limited to early child marriage as a form of economic gain for the families of these girls, rape, girl/women battery, laws that discriminate women in the society, etc.

Thus, the growing trend of GBV has informed my quest to implement a project of this nature in Borno state, so as to contribute my quota to the reduction or the total eradication of SEXUAL AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE in the state and by inference, the North Eastern states and Nigeria as a whole