Grace & Light has helped amplify the voices of female survivors of gender-based violence as a supporter of the UN’s campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence.

Staff and volunteers in Jos and Yola hosted or joined activities on 12 of the 16 days including visiting churches and speaking at events.

Highlights include speaking in Agingi town square on market day and offering HIV/AIDS counselling and testing to visiting farmers and local residents on World Aids Day 1 December. Fifty-two people chose to be tested. Agingi is a poor rural community near our Jos office.

Highlight in Yola was participating in a day long series of lectures before 400 people from across local churches.

“We shared our experiences of sexual and gender-based violence from the many churches we support in Yola and other areas, plus answered lots of questions about how churches should respond and what signs to look out for,” said international coordinator Tassie Ghata.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence is an annual campaign that begins on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until International Human Rights Day on 10 December.

On its website UN Women says

Violence against women and girls remains the most pervasive human rights violation around the world. Already heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, its prevalence is now being further increased by the intersecting crises of climate change, global conflict and economic instability.

Against this setting, a backlash against women’s rights is underway around the world. Anti-feminist movements are on the rise, attacks against women human rights defenders and activists are up, and the legal status of women’s rights is increasingly imperiled in many countries.

Regressive new laws are exacerbating impunity for perpetrators of domestic violence, governments are using force against femicide and gender-based violence protestors, and women’s rights organisations are being increasingly marginalised. 

Prayer Requests

Please pray for:

• Women and girls in Nigeria who are facing violence in their families and places of work, that they will have courage and support to persuade their abusers to change behaviours
• Men and boys in the Agingi community will treat their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters with respect as equals.