Parental interference, poverty, and unemployment have been identified as major factors responsible for increased cases of gender-based violence in some communities in Miri and Birshi Wards of Bauchi LGA, Bauchi State.
To this end, housewives in the two communities have advocated for the establishment of skills acquisition centers to empower vulnerable families and mitigate the challenge.
This formed part of the decisions taken at a one-day community engagement on ending ‘Gender-Based Violence Against Women’ organized by a Bauchi-based NGO, ‘We AID Initiative,’ with support from Urgent Action Fund (UAF) Africa, held at Bayara Primary School, Bauchi.
The sixty participants also called for the urgent establishment of a communication channel to serve as a platform for seeking redress in case of abuse, as the absence of such a forum has denied aggrieved women the opportunity to lay their complaints despite the psychological trauma they experience.
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Participants blamed the current economic hardship for the spate of family crises, as the high cost of living has prevented many families from providing basic household needs, notably food, healthcare, and school fees.
According to them, when the hardship continues unabated, some men often leave, abandoning their children to the care of their wives, some of whom may lack any means of livelihood.
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They noted that if the man subsequently returns home, gender-based violence will become inevitable.
The participants urged couples to tolerate and support each other for marriages to last and appealed to civil society organizations to embark on advocacy to educate women on their rights and the basic tenets of family cohesion.
Earlier, the Executive Director of ‘We AID Initiative,’ Barrister Gambo Yakubu Waikiki, said the community engagement became necessary to guard against incidents of gender-based violence that claimed the life of a woman in Bayara community.
Barrister Gambo Yakubu therefore advised women to learn to speak up and not remain silent but to seek redress through appropriate channels in order to halt the spread of gender-based violence.
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