Neighbourhood Environment Watch (NEW) Foundation, a Non Governmental Organisation has trained Presidents-General of Enugu communities on gender equality and violence prevention.
Dr Kelechukwu Okezie, the Executive Director of the foundation disclosed this at a briefing with newsmen on Friday in Abakaliki.
According to him, the training held recently in Enugu brought together Presidents-General from Enugu State’s three senatorial zones.
He said that the training was aimed to strengthen community leadership and promote women’s participation in decision-making processes.
Okezie reiterated that the programme also focused on preventing GBV across communities in the state.
The director said that men could not remain indifferent amid increasing cases of gender-based violence.
He added that the fight against all forms of gender-based violence was a collective responsibility describing presidents-general as critical grassroots influencers and community mobilisers.
“Your leadership positions make you strategic partners in eliminating harmful social practices, ensure that perpetrators of GBV has no operating space in your communities,” Okezie said.
He noted that the training deepened participants’ understanding of gender equity, justice and inclusive leadership.
Okezie, an environmentalist said that participants also explored ways that community structures could promote positive social change and women’s voices.
He added that a major outcome of the engagement was the commitment by the presidents-general to champion gender equality initiatives.
“They also pledged to cascade lessons from the training across communities in the three senatorial zones,” he added.
He said that the training of presidents-general was part of broader strategy by the foundation to eliminate GBV in the South-East zone.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Enugu State Council of Presidents-General, Chief Arinze Ogbodo, who spoke on behalf of the leaders reaffirmed commitment to work closely with the foundation to end GBV in Enugu State.
“We will step down this training in our various communities and I am confident that Enugu can become a model for eliminating gender-based violence in Nigeria,” Ogbodo said.
He said that the state government was aware of the training and supported the anti-GBV campaign adding that collective efforts by stakeholders would help achieve lasting social change and safer communities.
