Women empowerment: UN reiterates support for Edo’s initiatives
The United Nations (UN) organ working for the empowerment of women, also known as UN Women, has pledged support to Edo State government’s policies aimed at protecting women and girls as well as strategies deployed by the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration in curbing human trafficking.
Country Representative for Nigeria, UN Women, Comfort Lamptey, said this during a courtesy visit to the governor at Government House in Benin City.
Niola Foundation awareness campaign to help Nigerians understand cancer prevention
As part of Niola Cancer Care Foundation’s objectives of promoting healthy lifestyle and living, it created an annual Health Education event known as ‘IJOYA,’ which third edition is coming up in October in Lagos.
The third edition of IJOYA 3.0 tagged “DEWS” Of Life (Dance; Exercise; Wellness & Screening) is an event organised by the Foundation in partnership with reputable fitness and exercise outfits - Safari Fitness and The Hit Squad in conjunction with Actors Guild of Nigeria Lagos Branch; to Dance, Exercise, Engage in Wellness activities, Screening and Exhibition Of Organic Food items in a bid to reduce risk of cancer and create awareness about the disease.
Its 2018 ‘ IJOYA 2.0’ (2nd edition) was attended by over 2,000 participants. The Ijoya brand is gaining wider visibility and acceptance as a medium of awareness for Health related Education about Cancer. This year’s edition will take place on Saturday, October 5, 2019, at the outdoors of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, between 7am and 10am. There will be health specialists in attendance with a projection of 5,000 participants.
In Nigeria, cancer screening, early detection and palliative care are largely unavailable in most of the public health care facilities.
Niola Cancer Care Foundation is Nigeria’s first non-governmental organisation dedicated to creating unmatched awareness on wellness with emphasis on colorectal cancer; conduct screening for early detection, advocate for better treatment and support research for its cure.
Its vision as an organisation is to set up Colorectal Cancer Screening Centres in Nigeria, with capacity to screen up to 100,000 individuals annually by the year 2030.
Its mission is to campaign for wellness and early detection through communication and engagement platforms, while leveraging on solid partnerships with its stakeholders and volunteers.
Lamptey said the domestication of the Violence Against Persons (VAP) Law by Edo State Government was commendable and a right step in protecting women and girls in the state.
The UN organ is working with the Italian Government to ensure that policies to protect women and girls are implemented in Nigeria, especially as the country is addressing the challenge of human trafficking, she said.
According to Lamptey, the partnership with the state government is aimed at ensuring women organisations involved in the fight against trafficking of women and girls are strengthened and supported with relevant leadership skills so they can better interface with relevant agencies.
She said UN Women would also engage men and traditional rulers in the state to drive gender equality, noting, “Our collaboration is to support policy review, formulation and capacity building. We are ready to dialogue with Civil Society Organisations and Non-governmental Organisations to see how our small intervention can add value to the ongoing work in the state.”
In his response, Governor Obaseki said the UN Women’s partnership with the state government on policy implementation and capacity building was needed as his administration was executing policies against human trafficking.
He explained that the state government had put in place policies and programmes, as it relates to gender equality, adding that what needed to be done was the monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the policies.
“We have done a review of the policies and programmes that have to do with women across our Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) so that we can streamline them. We are now undertaking enumeration of businesses owned by women across the state to develop database for women businesses. The next stage for us is to focus on areas where girls are prone to trafficking and address the issue at that level,” he said.
He added that the state was working on several initiatives to curb human trafficking.
Meanwhile, Governor Obaseki has met with officials of the World Bank and the European Union (EU) to review the impact of the multi-pronged strategy being deployed in the fight against human trafficking in the state.
According to Obaseki, “the meeting provided us with the opportunity to appraise the work we have done so far and set new targets because the fight against human trafficking must be sustained.