Oyo agency, Chinese group partner NGO to sensitise staff on gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS

Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP) and the China Gezhonba Group Company (CGGC) have, on Thursday, in Ibadan, partnered with the Savingcross Justicepoint Foundation (SJF) to sensitise their staff on gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV/AIDS.

The event which was tagged ‘A sensitisation on gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS’ was a World Bank-assisted project and was supported by the Oyo State Agency for the Control of AIDS (OYSACA), Women Safe House, and the Family Health and Population Action Group (FAHPAC).

While giving the opening remarks of the event, the spokesperson of CGGC, Engr Soji Adedokun, stated that due to the nature of their work as engineers and construction workers, the event was apt because it would give them better knowledge and insight on how to handle their relationships with colleagues and their host communities and to be abreast of what GBV and HIV/AIDS are about.

The founder and Executive Director of SJF, who is also a lawyer, Oluwaseun Folajuwon-Banjo, presented a sensitisation training on GBV and code of conduct (COC). During her lecture, she spoke on the causes, types, prevention, and management of GBV. She stressed that GVB is a global problem and that though women and children bear the brunt more, men are also victims of it.

She stated that sexual, physical, emotional, economical, and verbal are the major types of violence prominent in the society. She further stated that inequality, religious beliefs, history of violence, frustration/mental instability, alcohol/substance abuse, systematic failure in GBV reprisal, among other are the major causes of GBV.

She noted that one out of every three women has been beaten or coaxed into non-consensual and that such women are known by the perpetrators. She emphasised that stereotyping sex is harmful to society, and that many GBV victims live in fear which is a myth that needs to be addressed.

“GBV is a global problem, and we need everyone to stand against it,” Folajuwon-Banjo said.

“When you see violence and you did not condemn it, then you are giving it your consent.”

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The community mobilisation officer of OYSACA, Tolulope Olushola-Jimoh, talked about HIV/AIDS. She stated that though HIV can be treated with drugs, it has no known cure.

She noted that 80 per cent of HIV is contracted through unprotected sex, and the rest is contracted through sharing of unsterilised shape objects, mother to child, and blood transfusion.

“We have drugs for HIV and they are free,” Olushola-Jimoh said. “Someone with HIV should not spread it because in the process they can contract another strand of the virus which can make the drugs they are already using not to be effective, which can lead to AIDS.”

In the course of her presentation, Olushola-Jimoh taught the participants how to properly use condoms to protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The social safeguard for IUFMP, Bola Dada, said the event is a form of empowerment for their staff and other people, which will help in discouraging them from indulging in acts that promote GVB and HIV/AIDS.

“This is the third time we are organising this type of event, which is helping to address the danger of GVB in the society,” Dada said. “The event will help them to have a healthy relationship among themselves and with the host communities where they work.”

Some staff of CGGC, IUFMP and other participants commended the organisers of the event. Many of them said the event was an eye-opener to many things they did not know about GBV and HIV/AIDS.

At the event, there was free HIV testing and also COVID-19 vaccination of participants who were interested in them, while free condoms and educational materials on GBV and HIV/AIDS were also distributed.

Kingsley Alumona