As parts of efforts to tackle sexual and gender-based violence and to spur reporting on gender-based violence in Alimosho area of Lagos, the Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP) has begun the execution of its project titled: “Increasing Access to Justice Related Services” in Ikotun, Iyana-Ipaja and its environs
The project executed with support from the British Council and the European Union began in September 2020 with the setting up of the Ireti Resource Centre in Ikotun. In November 2020, Town Hall meetings were held across the six LCDAs in Alimosho.
The Programme Manager representing the Executive Director, Bose Ironsi, James Unegbu said that “members need to know what to do when they are faced with challenges of violation related to sexual and gender-based violence. Over the years, we discovered that cases on gender based-violence were not reported because community people were ignorant of the law so this is why we embarked on these town hall meetings to educate and equip them with tools to let them know the right steps to tale in reporting cases of gender-based violence. We put the law into infographics and explained further what the law says about gender-based violence, there was also a process map to let them know what to do when cases like that come up.”
“Ireti Resource Centre is one of the interventions of the Women’s Rights and Health Projects in Alimosho. It is a one-stop centre that provides free referral and counselling, legal aids, prosecution and support for victims to get medical reports. All the services are free. It is being funded by the British Council through the roll-back project. Ireti Resource Centre is designed to support vulnerable people and SGBV survivors by providing them with free services, we have trained 100 police officers,300 community mandated SGBV reporters from 30 social structures.2
The town hall meeting involved interaction with community groups such as The CDC (Umbrella body for the community development associations, artisans, hairdressers, grinding machine operators, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), NUREC and individual community members.
