Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA) on held a community women and girl’s conversation on addressing sexual violence and exploitation of women and girls in Chika, Jikwoyi and Dutse-Pe communities, Abuja. The activity was implemented with support from ActionAid Nigeria. The engagement was done in a safe space, which gave the participants the opportunity to express themselves and feel free to have an interactive conversation without the fear of being exposed to the public.
The objectives of the activity were:
- To promote awareness and garner support that will prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG).
- To engage women and girls in a conversation that will build their agency to be able to advocate against VAWG.
- To provide an interactive participatory communication process that allows for information sharing, consensus building, reflective thinking and interrogation of assumptions.
An interactive and participatory approach was deployed to aid and drive the conversation, and expose the women and girls to issues that affects them. It involved the use of transformative gender tools such as the body mapping tool.
Leveraging on the introductory part, Nkechi Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam, Executive Director of IWOGRA educated the participants on the importance of knowing and getting comfortable with their body, appreciating and accepting the uniqueness of their different body parts. She added that when they know their body and get comfortable with their body, it will help protect and prevent them from sexual violence and exploitation.
The body map tool was deployed and Executive Director of IWOGRA explained the meaning of the body map tool. A participant volunteered to lay on a sheet and her body mapped out. The participants were asked to label the body parts. The body parts labeled out include, hair, head, forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, ear, cheeks, jaw, lips, tongue, shoulders, chest, shoulders, breasts, nipples, stomach, navel, waist, armpits, elbow, wrists, fingers, nails, hips, legs, thighs, vagina, ass cheeks, knees, feet, toes, ankles, buttocks and clitoris.
The ED clarified the core of the body map exercise saying it’s for the women and girls to have a visual insight of a woman’s body and seeing how each part suffers without their knowledge. She pleaded with the women to be autonomous about their body as this will shield them from violence and exploitation.