Kudirat Initiative For Democracy
On Tuesday 28th November 2017, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Women Group) organised a workshop themed “Women Empowerment and National Development: The Nexus of Policies, Laws and Practice”. @ the Henry Fajemirokun Hall, Commerce House Victoria Island, Lagos.
See Below Pictures of the Event:
Hafsat Abiola-Costello receives an award at the event for her outstanding performance in supporting women political participation in Nigeria.
Brie Larson and Kate Bosworth joined PORTER’s Editor-in-Chief, Lucy Yeomans and Universal Pictures Chairman and Vital Voices board memberDonna Langley as they co-hosted the second annual Incredible Women Gala in association with Estée Lauder. The evening benefitted Vital Voices, highlighting network activist, Hafsat Abiola.
“No one questions when women and girls accept the lot that we’ve been given. Yet, we are questioned when we seek to change the way things are. I was 19 when my mother was killed for fighting for change in Nigeria. So it was at 19 that I decided to do more than what my society expected.”
Hafsat Abiola-Costello believes the challenges facing Nigeria offer a unique opportunity for women’s leadership to emerge. Through her nonprofit – the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) – she’s developing a rising generation of women leaders. Her life’s work is a tribute to her parents, who were assassinated for their pro-democracy activism.
As a cabinet member of the Ogun State government, she works to keep communities safe and advance women’s equal rights. Long before Boko Haram made headlines, Hafsat took dangerous trips to areas targeted by the extremist group. She organized coalitions of women to demand action against the group and continues to advocate for justice.
Project Alert Partner with KIND to organize a program tagged Gender-Based Violence and women with disabilities.
Date: 18th & 19th of October 2017
The program was focused basically on creating awareness amongst CSOs on issues on Gender-Based Violence and how it affects Women with Disabilities; Networks and links mainstream CSOs organizers and Disabilities organization so that they work together to achieve their goals.
Mrs. Josephine of Project alert affirmed that NGOs cannot solve the problem of the masses alone but need to collaborate with other NGOs because each has its area of specialization. Also, she mentioned people /organizations that are to tackle VAW with disabilities which are: Religious leaders, Traditional Leaders, the CSOs and Lagos state office of the Disabilities Affairs(LASODA) since the programme would be carried out in Lagos State
Mr. Alejo Adegboyega the Deputy General Manager of LASODA commended the organizers for her roles in promoting actions of GBV against women with disabilities (WWDs) in Lagos State. LASODA was established by Lagos disability law in July 2011 to seek redress for PWDs and protect them against any form of violence or discrimination they may face in their communities. LASODA is to work to achieve the following:
All NGOs that work with VAWG are advised to register their organizations with LASODA…. Registration requirements are as follows;
Mr. Alejo Adegboyega advised all partners and participants to go to LASODA website for more information and check the disabilities bill law passed in 2011 in Lagos state. A suggestion raised was that each organization should send at least one of their staff for sign language training organized by LASODA for proper implementation of programmes with PWDs.
Mr. David Anyaele the Executive Director of Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) gave a statistical analysis saying that people with disabilities is 2.32% in Nigeria and 60% of this figure is between 18 years and above. The sex distribution of PWDs; Male 52.5% while Female is 47.5%. In his presentation, he made it clear that World Bank and WHO report in 2011 stated that more than 1 billion persons in the world are living with disabilities. He said some part of the world believes that PWDs are SPECIAL PEOPLE, which is not true because we have the equal right since we are all SPECIAL. Some of the PWDs were not born with any form of disability; it may be Through an Accident, Illness and much more.
LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME IN UNIVERSITIES AND POLYTECHNICS
In partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through Voices for Change (now Purple) KIND was able to improve the Leadership, Decision making and Life-Skills competencies of adolescent boys and girls between the ages of 16 – 25 in University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH).
We employed the use of interactive virtual and physical platforms, referred to as ‘safe spaces’ in the school training. Over 450 young people have benefited from the leadership development programme in both schools and we are still in the process of training more.
PICTURE OF THE TRAINED STUDENTS:
Students on the programme’s impact
Buki Temitope, one trained female student said ‘The training has helped me to develop my leadership skill and made me more assertive’
Oyewunmi Waliu, one of the trained boys said ‘The training made me understand the true meaning of Gender and gender equality and also know how to convince my colleagues not to practice violence against women’
Child Rights Project (Kano State)
This is a European Union (EU) sponsored project. KIND partnered with VSO International Nigeria to carry out the project in Kano State. The Objective of this initiative is to strengthen local child rights focused based civil society organizations and promote the effective civil society and community action as an effective force in fostering an enabling environment for the passage of the Child Rights Act in the state.
We equipped 40 students and 32 teachers in 16 schools from 6 Local Government Areas in Kano State and Kano State-based CSOs on the basic requirements of child rights.
KIND-Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGP)
KIND was one of the 7 organizations out of an applicant pool of 200 that secured a grant from the Japanese Government to construct a 6 Classroom block with 4 toilets for Imoro Community Nursery/Primary School in Sagamu Local Government Area (LGA) of Ogun State. The grant also provided for 158 sets of chairs and desks for the students, and 7 tables ad 8 chairs for the teachers. The LGA was the only one out of the 20 in the state that elected a woman to chair its Government Council, hence our selection of the school to communicate the message ‘everyone wins when women are given an opportunity to serve in public office!’
PICTURE OF THE CLASSROOMS AND COMMENTS:
Recommendation from Japanese Officer in charge of the Project
“The Japanese Government would like to work with your Organization in 2016 because this project turned out to be one of the best of the type funded for the year.”