An NGO, SME Africa, says it has trained 100 domestically violated women on entrepreneurship.
Mr Charles Odi, Executive Director of the organisation, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the 100 women International mentorship series held on Thursday in Lagos.
The event was to commemorate the International Women’s Day.
Odi said that the training was to empower such women on vocation and skill acquisition so that they could be employable and earn a living.
According to him, it was because research had shown that most women, who were abused, hit or raped, were dependent on the men.
“We got some disturbing statistics of over 300 cases of domestic violence occur every month in Lagos alone, and these are only the cases that are reported.
“So, we thought to ourselves that how can we help with this because we cannot stop our men before they commit their crimes, which according to Lagos State Government, domestic violence is a crime.
“So, what can we do to help these women who are victims of domestic violence when Lagos State has intervened; so we come in to train them,’’ Odi said.
He said that the training would help the women with a source of livelihood which comes from entrepreneurship or employability or vocation skills, data skills and all the other things.
“At this conference, you will see an exhibition of women who have been trained and started businesses and whose lives have changed because the organisation actually partnered with Lagos State Government to train them,” the executive director said.
Odi said the women were trained to get good jobs and start doing business.
He that they were now ambassadors empowering other women to speak up against domestic violence and not to be timid, but speak out about being hit or violated.
The training started six months ago and 100 women had benefited.
According to him, about 300 women are reported cases of being abused, hit or raped every month which amounts to 3,600 cases every year.
“So based on this, these women are encouraging more women to speak,” he said.
Odi said that the women were also introduced to Lagos State Trust Fund Domestic Violence against Women Trust Fund to empower the women too.
Mr Brian Ojii, Co-founder, SME 100,
said that up scaling the women would giving them ample opportunities.
Ojii said: “So by teaching and training them with soft skills, vocational skills will improve their earning capacity.
“The training goes on for six weeks and we will like a situation whereby we can introduce more skills to the arrangement so that it is a full bouquet of activities, where they learn different skills and get funding for their vocation.
“It would be great to have more people fund different domestic violence cases and other cases which could be solved by giving the victims empowerment.”