Every 8th of March is the International Women’s Day. The day underscores the need for continuous efforts to create an inclusive, fair and empowering society for women. The theme for 2025 is ‘Accelerate Action, which calls for rapid advancements in gender equality. To mark the day, PEACE MOYINOLUWA ADEDOKUN, Communications Manager Ceceyara Child Advocacy Center, speaks with the Chief Executive Officer of Ceceyara Child Advocacy Center, Mrs Bisi Ajayi-Kayode on the theme of IWD and its reflection on her as a woman. Excerpt
What Is Your Role As A Woman Looking At The Theme Of This Year’s IWD?
A woman is not just the female gender of humanity. A woman is a carer, biologically hormonally, a woman gives birth. It doesn’t stop there.
Being a woman does not stop at being a baby factory, producing children. A woman’s vocation as a female gender is not complete if she doesn’t ensure child protection from sexual and gender-based violence.
Now, How Do You Accelerate Action?
Number one, you must be well informed as to what sexual and gender violence is, and what child sexual abuse is. Often what people see is the physical aspect; a man battering the woman, or an adult battering a child.
But gender-based violence can also be psychological. It can be visual when you give a mean look to somebody. It can be a financial injury. When you deprive somebody of his or her livelihood or the expression of their fundamental human rights because you have the power to cripple their finances, or you intimidate a child into sexual activities by depriving the child of food or not sending the child to school, or a child is sick and said okay, I won’t take you to the hospital unless you allow me to touch you inappropriately or do something, that is unkind.
A woman should accelerate action by facilitating and implementing safety plans for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
A woman should be on the red alert, even at the mere suspicion of is this what is going on? You don’t wait until it has happened, or you’ve confirmed.
Once you see that somebody is at risk of sexual and gender-based violence or a child is at risk of being abused, you embark on a safety plan which includes alerting the authorities, relocating the child from that offending environment and harnessing the child to community resources.
Can You Be More Illustrative?
For example, if a child is abused or at risk, first and foremost, you need to treat that child with respect, you listen not just to what the child is saying but what the child is not saying, because oftentimes sexual and gender-based violence requires a show and tell strategy for you to have clarity.
For example, if you ask a child, are you okay? And the child just shrugs, that speaks volumes. You understand. You must be able to discern if it has occurred once or serially, who are the authorities involved, and social welfare, and you should be able to give the victim the necessary information and then you should be able to implement a survivor-centred approach.
A Survivor-Centred Approach?
Let the victim know this is what is ongoing, but that doesn’t mean you should overpower the will, the mind and emotions of the victim without convincing their sense of judgment.
For example, if you help rescue a victim and you say, let’s go to the police now and the victim says “No, I’m not ready”, you don’t get angry with such a victim. This is because there’s medical evidence to prove that constant exposure to trauma causes extreme brain damage. The victim may need to get him or herself together.
Let’s Talk About Confidentiality And Privacy
When we talk about confidentiality, it means you should know the limits of confidentiality and privacy. Yes, when you see it occur, you don’t broadcast it, but you don’t promise a victim that you will not tell anybody.
But you need to explain; we must report this to law enforcement, the police and others to hold this perpetrator accountable so that he will stop doing this to you and he will not be able to do it to somebody else.
Then you need medical treatment and evaluation so that it will mitigate the risk of contracting STDs, and unwanted pregnancies, you know.
You may need emergency contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies. In cases of physical abuse, often, people lie when talking to the doctor.
A lot of women have died because they were bruised and battered, doctors are just treating the outside wound, and the woman is bleeding internally.
We’ve seen women who have lost their eyesight after being battered. We’ve seen children and adults who are now living with disabilities, both developmental and physical because they could not get enough help.
Housing Advocacy?
We need to remove the victim from that environment to a safe-neutral and regulated environment to enable the victim to regain his or her sense of safety, access psychotherapy and get healed and adjusted to leaving a normal post-abusive life, which is what we do at Cece Yara.
What About Legal Support?
Legal aid, we act as support persons, holding and watching cases to closure because most people don’t know that access to justice is part of the healing process.
We’ve seen a lot of victims accessing psychotherapy, but when they get to know that, okay, this perpetrator has been apprehended, he no longer, does not have the opportunity to abuse them anymore, you see that they respond more to therapy, they feel safer, their self-esteem is improved and all that.
Accelerating Action, Creating Awareness?
Yes, awareness creation! You don’t wait for it to happen. The fact that you’re not hearing about it, or the number of cases reported is low does not mean it’s not happening everywhere.
Often, because of our negative sociocultural norms, you will see a man bruises and batter his wife, and they will tell the wife to go and beg him.
You will see a child cry out, ‘This neighbour has been molesting me, defiling me’ They say – ‘How can you say that about an elder? Is it because of this small girl, the landlord will now go to jail?
All those things need to be watered down. It takes strong commitment, it takes being focused, it takes being well-informed, and awareness creation because sexual and gender-based violence is both a public health and human rights crisis. It is an ancient problem which we all have to contend with, but that does not mean it’s acceptable.
We need to restore life to restore dignity and you know that delay is very, very dangerous, very fatal.
We’ve seen a lot of victims dying before they’re able to disclose. That’s why at Cece Yara we have a child helpline, a 24/7 toll-free number – 0800-800-8001 to provide professional counselling, information, care, referral pathways, and emergency interventions for victims.
Every life counts, and the statistics are such that one in every three women in the world experiences domestic violence. HGP also abates maternal mortality rates.
You see women dying before their time, you see them being crippled. You see a lot of talents being buried because a woman cannot, is not allowed to have her own money, she’s not allowed to go to school.
We have offences like child marriage, female genital mutilation, child trafficking, and outright defaming. One of the most difficult categories of abuse to deal with is the emotional and psychological one because it’s difficult to prove. The perpetrator will say – “I didn’t touch him, I didn’t touch her,” but the mental damage done to the victim is as serious as medical damage to the medical health.
So, at Cece Yara, we provide a one-stop response, free legal medical psychosocial, shelter services, and forensic interviews. Forensic interview is for children, to facilitate investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse cases. It’s a structural process of eliciting evidential information in an age-appropriate and developmentally sensitive manner, using forensic interview equipment and technology to help a child make optimal disclosures about a crime or an event he or she has experienced or witnessed to facilitate investigation and prosecution. It’s the best practice all over the world.
