The deputy coordinator of Sultan foundation for peace and development in Adamawa State, Barr Amina Mohammed Ali has disclosed that the intervention of the foundation toward awareness creation has led to a seismic change in the behavior of the society towards Gender Based Violence (GBV) and other harmful cultural norms and practices.
Ali who made the disclosure during a workshop at the Fathur Rahman college of science and technology Yola, noted that the deliberate involvement of different strata of the society in its core communication strategy has paid premiums as everyone is now involved in the advocacy towards eradicating GBV, VAWG and other harmful practices.
She noted that people and societies are now more than willing to pursue any form of GBV to the latter as they unlike before understand that such scourges constitute a great violation of human rights.
Ali said the all encompassing approach involved training secondary school students, forming community vanguards against the scourge which consist of religious, traditional and youth leadership and on the final lap training students of tertiary institutions.
She expressed optimism that such harmful cultural practices will soon become things of the past in Adamawa State as the behavior of people has started shifting tremendously.
“Before it is only women that sell roasted corn and groundnut by the side of the road, but now that behavior is shifting as you will also see men doing the same chores.
“Over time our people come to understand that no culture is cast in stone, people are really throwing away cultures they see as stunting their progress and embracing new ones.
“Also our students unlike before are no more scared to speak boldly about the need to change any culture that is obverse to civilization and that is a healthy development for us as peoples and communities,” she said.
In her presentation to the students, the resource person, Barr Amina Yakubu told the students that the reasons for the training is to make them to understand and appreciate that GBV and harmful cultural norms constitute serious setback to the society.
She said those harmful cultural norms need to give way for the society to make significant progress calling on the students to be good ambassadors of Sultan foundation by sharing the knowledge learnt with other members of the society.
