By Adebayo Adenrele
A Non Governmental Organization known as Disability Not A Barrier Initiative (DINABI), has urged the Ekiti State Government to include Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in the State’s Gender Based Violence (GBV) Management Committee.
This call was made on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti by the Director of the Initiative, Olajide Benjamin Funso during a one-day public dialogue on “Disability Inclusive Access to Justice against GBV in Ekiti State”.
Speaking with journalists, Olajide said inclusion of PWDs in the committee will enable them, especially women and girls to have sense of belongings for an effective disability-inclusive GBV response.
He added that DINABI, which is an NGO sponsored by Disability Rights Fund, has been in the frontline in making sure that PWDs enjoy equal rights with other citizens in the state.
His words, “This gathering was borne out of the fact that we have noticed that there is an increasing rate of gender based violence against women and girls with disabilities in Ekiti state.
“Part of that we are expecting is the inclusion of PWDs in the GBV management committee of Ekiti state which will make the response and reporting mechanism to be inclusive.
“We are also expecting that some of the critical offices around GBV management should also have sign language interpreters and their facilities and structures be made accessible with provision of lifts and the rest.
“We are expecting that there should be training and retraining of first responders of GBV issues which are Police, Civil Defence, National Human Right commission, sexual assault referral centre, and other offices concerned so that their staffs will be disability-inclusive in order to understand disability-inclusive practices around their world”.
In her goodwill message, the Special Adviser to the state government on Special Education and Social Inclusion, Adetoun Agboola said Governor Biodun Oyebanji is a friendly helmsman to PWDs in the state, adding that his administration has been working assiduously towards ensuring that the rights of PWDs in Ekiti are not tampered with.
She thereby enjoined women to report cases of GBV to the appropriate quarters and not crawl back with shame into their shell.
Like the Oliver Twist, she also urged the public to report any offensive PWDs to the appropriate stations where necessary actions will be taken against them rather than inflicting hardship on them.
In the quest for effective disability-inclusive GBV response, the Director of Balm in Gilead Foundation for Sustainable Development (BIGIF), Oluwatumininu Adedeji in her keynote address titled “Gender-Based Violence Reporting and Response: The Need for a Disability-Inclusive Approach in Ekiti State, Nigeria”, advocated for policy and legal reforms, increased synergy across sector, enhanced accessibility, capacity building, among others.