William Attah

The Foundation for Community Empowerment Initiative (FOCEI) in partnership with Women Aid Collective (WACOL) has charged youths to stand out and be the ambassadors of the fight towards ending gender based violence in Gombe State.

Dr Benjamin Maina, the team lead of FOCEI gave the charge at the end of a one day women Youth Leaders stakeholders meeting on how to prevent gender based violence in Gombe.

FOCEI in partnership with WACOL has been executing a project in two Gombe communities of Liji and Zambuk towards empowering Christian Women and women leaders of culture for prevention and response to gender based violence in Nigeria, through the strengthening of grassroots organisations.

During the meeting, Dr Maina urged the youths to be vanguards of ensuring that the culture of silence by victims of GBV or their relatives is being broken.

He also appealed to them to ensure that they step down what they gathered from the meeting to their immediate communities or organisations. He then pledged an open door to enable them join hands with FOCEI for the success of the campaign.

After a couple of presentations and discussions, the youths came out with some suggestions that they believe would help in addressing the issues of GBV in their various communities.

They called for a massive awareness campaign to traditional, religious and community leaders to sensitise their subjects about the prevalence of GBV in Gombe State and the need to confront the menace.

They also called for the massive use of the media in addressing GBV as well as ensuring perpetrators are publicly punished by Government and Church authorities.

Couple counselling as well as parents creating more time and conducive environment for children to talk freely with their parents, was also advocated by the youths.

Conducting awareness campaigns targeting traditional, religious, and community leaders.
Leveraging media platforms to highlight GBV issues
Ensuring public accountability for perpetrators through sanctions by government and church authorities
Promoting couple counselling
Encouraging parents to create safe spaces for children to communicate openly

The engagement underscored the crucial role of young people in driving social change and fostering a culture that actively confronts gender-based violence in Gombe State.