Technological Support for Aiding Humanity (TechSAH) Initiative, held a one-day capacity building workshop for relevant school staff and key opinion leaders to respond to VAWG/SCBV/HP on Thursday, 29 July 2021 in Abuja. The workshop was held in accordance to project line of activities under the “Engaging Key Opinion Leaders (community, educational, religious, traditional) to Secure Support for Women and Girls Access to SRHR and Prevention of VAWG/SGBV/HP” Project being implemented by TechSAH with support from UNESCO through the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative.

The objectives of the workshop were to;

(1) Build the capacity of the teachers/parents to prevent and respond to VAWG/SGBV/HP.

(2) Obtain recommendations for the development an Advocacy Action Plan for school-led anti-GBV engagements in the FCT.

(3) Sensitize on the importance of the gender vanguard school platform as the scout against GBV and form leaders of these platforms

The impact of the advocacy visits were greatly seen as the workshop gathered a total of one hundred and fifty (150) participants drawn from the principals, teachers, parents and community leaders in the FCT, with the majority being the teachers. This is a good indicator that all the schools lived up to their commitments made during the advocacy visits to schools in AMAC.

To moderate the workshop was Mr. Folajaiye Kareem, the Founder and Executive Director of Elite Life Management Consulting, a leading private-sector mental and well-being firm. The panel of resource persons were; Mrs. Nanre Emeje, Director, FCT-SEB, Mr. Chinedu Gbulie, Founder and Project Director of TechSAH Initiative, Mr. Chinonso Nwoye Founder and Team Lead Legal Hub, a leading legal resource firm to guide the conversations from the legal perspective, Ms. Esther Nkemjika, Project Officer, TechSAH Initiative, Mr. Rasheed Yusuf, Founder and Executive Director, RAHA Initiative, Mrs. Gloria Ezeome, the Principal Producer, Voice of Nigeria and Mr. Shedrach Uloko, Project Officer, UNESCO.

The workshops featured highly resourceful sessions on Sexual and Gender-based Violence and Response Protocols, Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights and Establishing a Conducive Eco-system for High Impact Learning. The workshop achieved its set objectives as participants increased their knowledge on the subject matter. School-based gender vanguard platforms were also set up to sustain the impact of the workshop at the schools.

Technological Support for Aiding Humanity (TechSAH) Initiative, held a series of radio talk shows in the FCT to sensitize the public on VAWG/SGBV and HP. The talk-shows were held in accordance to project line of activities under the “Engaging Key Opinion Leaders (community, educational, religious, traditional) to Secure Support for Women and Girls Access to SRHR and Prevention of VAWG/SGBV/HP” Project being implemented by TechSAH with support from UNESCO through the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative.
TechSAH Initiative engaged the radio waves of Voice of Nigeria, Vision FM and Wazobia to sensitize the public on VAWG/SGBV and HP.

The organization was represented by the TechSAH-Spotlight delegates i.e. Project Director, Chinedu Gbulie and Project Officer, Esther Nkemjika.
Emphasis was made on the need for improved training and retraining of teachers to curb SGBV in schools. Recommendations were also made stating that the PTA needs to be more active so that parents can be carried along in the fight against SGBV/VAWG and HP.

Technological Support for Aiding Humanity (TechSAH) Initiative paid advocacy visits to selected secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. The visit was orchestrated under the “Engaging Key Opinion Leaders (community, educational, religious, traditional) to Secure Support for Women and Girls Access to SRHR and Prevention of VAWG/SGBV/HP” Project being implemented by TechSAH with support from UNESCO through the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative.

The advocacy visits were aimed at establishing ties and securing the buy-ins of the schools on the project. The visits were also aimed at sensitizing the school management on the ills of Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV), Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Harmful Practices (HP) in school-related settings. The school management and teachers are another integral component of the education sector, hence the need to sensitize them on the subject matter and get their buy-ins to sustain the implementation of this project.

During the visits to the schools, Mr Chinedu Gbulie, Project Director at TechSAH Initiative intimated the school representatives on the reason for the visit, stating that it was very vital to bring issues of SGBV, VAWG and HP to the fore and that teachers and the school staff as a whole are at the centre of curbing it. He went further to give a presentation of the “Engaging Key Opinion Leaders (community, educational, religious, traditional) to Secure Support for Women and Girls Access to SRHR and Prevention of VAWG/SGBV/HP” project, narrating its overall goal, aims and objective and the strategies with which it would be carried out. Chinedu zeroed in on the necessity for an intervention of this nature. In his speech, he touched on the sad state of VAWG and SGBV in school settings, expressly stating that these kids spend a lot of time in school settings (in the school or around the school) and need to be guided as it relates to SGBV/VAWG and HP when in the school settings.

The visits yielded positive results as all the selected schools were happy to receive the TechSAH-Spotlight delegation and threw in their support and commitments for the project. The schools were further briefed on the activity schedule of the project to guide them on their level of participation. The visits ended with the TechSAH-Spotlight delegation presenting the advocacy materials to the school representatives.