The Community Awareness and Development Initiative (CADI), an NGO, on Sunday commenced the training of 150 Juma’at Mosques Imams on ways to address Gender Based Violence (GBV) and other harmful practices across communities in Sokoto State.
The Chief Executive and Founder of CADI, Alhaji Sani Umar-Jabbi, said the effort was in partnership with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and Sokoto State Government.
Umar-Jabbi, who is the District Head of Gagi, said the three day training was targeted at enhancing scholars’ capacity on modern knowledge and global scholars’ submissions on GBV and harmful practices.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the training availed the scholars’ of the opportunity to present papers on different topics that provided overview of Shari’ah intelligence.
According to him, most scholars, mostly in rural communities have poor access to educational materials relevant for handling issues surrounding sexual abuses and other forms violence.
”It is an ongoing efforts aimed at equipping scholars and the society to effectively assist victims of sexual and gender-based violence in their respective communities.
“The imams serve as great councilors to community groups. As such, their training on ways to offer services and referrals of survivors and other forms of violence against women will go a long way in assisting the authorities,” Umar-Jabbi said.
He urged the participants to adhere strictly to the techniques gained in the course of the training and endeavour to share knowledge and experiences for the good of the society.
He commended UNFPA and the State Government for their support, stressing that rising cases of GBV and harmful practices in the country called for collective efforts to reduce the menace.
In their separate lectures, Abdulmalik Abudullahi, Aminu Bala and Muhammadu Attahiru-Badamina, dwelled on the causes and avenues that could prompt gender-based violence.
The scholars presented divers issues on modern knowledge and Islamic Shari’ah law provisions safeguarding the integrity of women and improper practices in the society.
They maintained that the impacts of gender-based violence affected survivors’ behaviours, growth and development as well as their psychological wellbeing.
The Permanent Secretary, Sokoto State Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Hajia A’isha Dantsoho, said that strategies and policies had been put in place to check the ugly trend.
Dantsoho urged CSOs to assist relevant agencies in checkmating the menace by exposing perpetrators and monitoring the survivors.
She noted that the State Government in collaboration with some international donor agencies, had established a sexual assault referral centre to provide immediate and long term remedies for survivors of GBV.
The Commissioner commended CADI for the effort and stressed the need for more collective efforts against the menace. (NAN)
