CSR-in-Action Empowers Badagry Women

CSR-in-Action Advocacy has empowered rural women in the Badagry area of Lagos, to tackle gender-based violence (GBV), women exclusion and other pertinent social challenges facing them.

This, the organisation did through a recent workshop with the theme: “Inclusive Communities, Empowered Women,” which held recently at the riverine oil-producing community.

The workshop, which was co-facilitated by partner, Spaces for Change, analysed issues that have limited women’s terms of participation in society such as violence and gender inequality, and with the radio series, outlines strategies by which women can rise to overcome these challenges.

This, a statement explained, was is part of the ‘SITEI-Woman’ project, a series of initiatives targeted at empowering women, especially those impacted by the extractive industries in Nigeria.

SITEI-Woman is an offshoot of 10-year-old Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) Initiative, of CSR-in-Action which is aimed at fostering fiscal and social justice for communities with oil and gas and mining resources.

The project, which was funded by Ford Foundation, also featured representatives from the Lagos State Government (LASG) as well as partners and community leaders in the Badagry area.

According to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the SDGs and Investment, Mrs Abosede Oluwakemi George, who represented the Special Adviser to the Governor on SDGs and Investments, Ms Solape Hammond, women often suffer severe difficulties in silence.

“It is time for them to rise and speak up about those challenges threatening to limit their progress, as well as their active contribution to society,” she said.

Condemning the conspiratorial silence often accompanying the occurrence of violence against women in the society, Assistant Director of Community Development, Ministry of Chieftaincy and Local Government Affairs, Lagos, Adeniji Oluwatoyin, challenged the participants to, “go back to our various communities and tell everyone to speak up whenever such incidents happen to them or others around them.”