By Tosin Clegg
The International Women’s Society has lent its voice to the call for an end to the culture of rape and stigmatisation of rape victims just as it also called for fair representation of women in public leadership in Nigeria.
This call was made recently at the presentation of the association’s mid-term report at it’s Skills and Acquisition Centre in Lagos. Founded in 1957, the IWS is populated by a group of public spirited women who have dedicated to championing the cause of women and youths in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
IWS Nigeria channels her empowerment drive through adult literacy, skills and acquisition, scholarship, orphanage home, widows trust funds and lots more. All these are part of the organisation’s visions to build a better society where poverty will be severely minimised.
Speaking against rape culture, Ngoli Ogbolu, the 62nd President said: “It touches at the very core of our being for somebody to desecrate our bodies and so we don’t want it for any other person. We decry it and we hope that the government would bring it to sharp focus and provide institutional support that will help stem the tide of rape.”
While calling for a fair representation of women, Ogbolu canvassed for a legislation that would ensure more women were involved in the fabric of public leadership.
“It is not enough to empower women. The game-changer is to provide legislation that will ensure women are accounted for in positions of power. This will put women in position to best look after their women-folk. We are looking at a situation where 50% make up the population of Nigeria.
The IWS also commended Mrs. Orelope Adefulire, former Special Adviser to President Buhari on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for her generous donation in giving a facelift to it’s Skills and Acquisition Centre in Jakande, Lekki, Lagos. According to Feyisola Abiru, Chairperson, IWS Skills and Acquisition Centre, “we believe we can now accommodate more students, three times number of our present capacity with the expansion of our centre funded by Mrs Orelope Adefulire.
This year, we are graduating 65. In total, we have positively 1600 students have graduated directly and indirectly affected over 27,000 lives. Our programme currently trains students in areas such as Catering, Fashion, Beauty, Adult Literacy and Hospitality.”
