…Holds workshop for school teachers, counselors, CBOs
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Women’s Rights And Health Project (WRAHP) has held a workshop yesterday for school teachers, counsellors and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to tackle issues of technology-facilitated Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in Ikeja Lagos.
In a bid to address the issue, WRAHP, in collaboration with the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) proposed a pilot project aimed at building the capacity of 40 teachers and school counselors from all 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Lagos State.
The organizer, outlined the objectives of the workshop to include, enhancing the capacity of participants on trends, dimensions, and manifestations of technology-facilitated SGBV, to engender shared learning approaches on addressing technology-facilitated SGBV and Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) across target communities in Lagos State.
It noted that other reasons for which the programme was put up, include, to provide a platform for school leadership structures to synergize and influence SGBV response in Lagos State, develop strategies and plans of action for a more effective SGBV and CEFM response in target states and to develop an action plan and obtain commitments from schools and local structures on implementation.
The Program Officer Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), Onyechefula Ann in her remarks, on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the agency who was unavoidably absent, noted that the collaboration between DSVA and WRAHP in addressing SGBV in Lagos State is timely especially because of the population of digital tools users.
The Lagos Field Officer of SCALE PALLADIUM, Joshua Samson gave a brief introduction and insight into SGBV as well as CEFM in the country.
Samson highlighted the role of SCALE in addressing these issues in collaboration with WRAHP.
Alaka Zainab, a resource person from DSVA talked about the prevalence of SGBV in Lagos as well as the existing legal framework on addressing online SGBV.
She discussed in detail the provisions of Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019 which provide for safeguarding on data privacy; Sections 33,37 & 46 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention Act, 2015), Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015, Protection Against Domestic Violence Law, 2007 and The Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency Law.
She further highlighted how the police and pharmacies contribute to addressing these issues.
Alaka informed the participants of the existence of the Family Support Unit (FSU) within police stations and the I NEED YOU (INY) initiative within selected pharmacies.
The Program Coordinator at Tech Societal, Gabriel Odunsi delivered a paper on Understanding Technology- Facilitated SGBV and CEFM, and enlightened the participants on the various types of technology-facilitated SGBV perpetrators as well as how to address these issues.
According to him a few of the types include; cyber-stalking, Doxing, Sextortion etcetera.
Precious Eberechukwu of WRAHP facilitated the session on the process of handling trauma-based counseling and the roles school counselors have to play in handling Technology-facilitated Sexual and Gender Based Violence (TFSGBV).
Gabriel Odunsi of Tech Societal handled the session on “Harmonizing guidelines on best practices for addressing TFSGBV”.
Ann of the Lagos State DSVA, highlighted the roles of state actors in TFSGBV prevention and response in Lagos State.
She added that it is important for non-state actors to work together with state actors to promote a safer and secure digital world.
A total of 44 participants from across the target group (School Counselors, School teachers, and local CBOs, participated and gained knowledge on technology in the two days programme.
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