NGO decries sexual violence against boys

Founder of a non governmental organisation (NGO), Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), Dr. Kemi DaSilva-Ibru has decried the non-existence of curricula in schools that address gender-based violence in Nigeria, especially for boys.

She spoke in Lagos while announcing the results of the first session of WARIF new initiative called the WARIF Boys Conversation Cafe.

The initiative is designed to educate young boys between the ages of 12-16, on the prevalence of sexual violence, to change the perception and behavioral patterns among these groups of boys on violence against women.

Dr DaSilva-Ibru said WARIF Boys Conversation Café took informal dialogue sessions with cohort groups of secondary school boys, where vetted male volunteers were recruited from different organizations to serve as mentors /role models at these café sessions.

“At the end of first session with students of Surulere secondary school, the WARIF Boys Conversation Café, recorded an outstanding outcome with 98 percent of the beneficiaries strongly agreeing to take a stand in any case of sexual abuse rather than just being bystanders. 85 percent of the boys strongly agreed that CONSENT of a girl to have sex is important and should be respected. Further results of the project also showed that the use of banned drugs like Tramadol and Codeine dropped by a whopping 66 percent,” she said.

It is the first round of its new initiative called the WARIF Boys Conversation Café, which was sponsored by Diamond Bank.

According to her, the foundation’s role, from the outset is to address the high incidence of rape and sexual violence in communities across Lagos and other states.

“Our statistics today tell us that one in four girls before the age of 18 would have had one violent sexual encounter in Lagos State and in Nigeria. However, the more we work in this space, the more we appreciate that we focus a lot of attention on protecting the girls, and we spend less time addressing the boys. We sometimes even forget that many of the boys in our communities are also survivors.

“A lot of attention is given to women and girls to protect themselves against sexual abuse as opposed to teaching boys and men not to become perpetrators of sexual violence. With the introduction of this initiative, we intend to change the existing attitudes and behavior of young boys on the topic of rape and sexual violence.  Through mentoring and education, we can change the narrative of these young men who will then grow up to become productive members of their communities,” she said.

The Coordinator of Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team Lagos (DSVRT), Mrs. Lola Vivour Adeniyi, said, “at DSVRT we believe strongly in positive masculinity. We found that unconsciously, we put a lot of awareness on girls and how we can protect them, teaching them how to be safe, and how they can protect themselves from sexual abuse. But we usually leave the boys behind, which should not be the case, as statistics have shown that it is mostly boys who grow to be perpetrators of abuse, and they also get sexually abused too”.

“So, we are excited about the WARIF Boys’ Conversation Café, and we will be partnering with WARIF to cascade these café conversations across the 6 education districts in Lagos. “ she added.

WARIF is a non-profit organisation, established to raise awareness and address the prevalence of rape, sexual violence and trafficking of young girls and women in communities across Nigeria. The foundation has also introduced several initiatives such as the WARIF Centre, WARIF Educational School program, WARIF Know your community, WARIF Gatekeepers initiative and the WARIF through the Arts initiative.

THE NATION NEWSPAPER