African Women’s Day is marked on 31 July each year. This day was set aside by the African Union as a day to celebrate African women and to prioritize women’s issues. Oxfam is a feminist organization that empowers Nigerian women to realize their full potentials, live free from violence and discrimination, participate in decision making, exercise their economic rights and bodily integrity to contribute to nation, and as such joins the world in in the commemoration of this day in a bid to bring to the fore of conversations, the issues that affect women in Nigeria and Africa.
For us at Oxfam, women are at the center of all we do, ensuring that programming includes them, and they are not left out of any conversations. Women play a prominent role in society and with about 50% of the world’s population being women, their contributions cannot be under-emphasized. There is a common saying that, if you train a man you train an individual but if you train a woman, you train a community.
It is important that we celebrate the role that women play in society beyond their role as child bearers and primary caregivers. We have seen women achieve great heights in society in industry, in law, in politics, in agriculture and in education. There is almost no level of human attainment that women have not been able to conquer. Astronauts, fighter pilots, scientists, mathematicians, you name it, there is a woman up there.
This year Oxfam in Nigeria as part Oxfam’s ENOUGH Campaign will be celebrating African Women’s Day on 31 July 2020. The Enough Campaign is a global campaign on the elimination of violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG), which aims at changing widely accepted harmful social norms that too often justify violence against women and girls, and work with communities and individuals to promote positive norms that promote gender equality and non-violence. This year we are highlighting the stories of two amazing Nigerian GBV Activists- Suzan Olofu, Founder of No-to-abuse network from Benue State and Hassana Maina, a champion for the fight against gender-based violence, as part of our lined up events to mark the 2020 Day of the African Woman, telling their stories in order to celebrate their courage and endeavors to end VAWG in Nigeria. We also celebrate our global icons and influential role models such as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chimamanda Adichie, Oxfam Female Food Heroes, which includes Monica Maigari and Chinasa Asonye, as well as all women across Nigeria and Africa who everyday challenge negative stereotypes and social norms about women in order to make the world a better and safer place for all. s
Kindly join our social media campaign, stand up against to challenge negative stereotypes and norms about African women and become anti Anti-Gender Based Violence champion in your community. We encourage you to visit our website and platforms for more information and we encourage you to engage with us and re-share all our posts as regards the subject, as your contribution in ending VAWG in Nigeria and the world over.
ABOUT OXFAM
In Nigeria, Oxfam works to influence policy change in favor of the poor and most vulnerable. We work to boost civic engagement by providing platforms for citizen engagement to make policymaking more transparent and inclusive. We help improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and pastoralists by increasing their access to critical resources and building their capacity to work with government and the private sector to enhance food and nutrition security in Nigeria. We help small entrepreneurs, especially young people and women, to grow, become more financially sustainable and have a greater social impact.
We invest in women's leadership, autonomy, and agency. We empower women and girls to live free from gender-based discrimination and violence. We fight inequality to end poverty and injustice as part of a global movement for social justice.
Oxfam as a member of the DPGG (Development Partners Gender Group), in collaboration and coordinated by UN Women, working with National NGOs to create awareness on issues of GBV including SGBV, creating linkages with existing GBV Referral pathways and collaborating with relevant Government referral actors to strengthen the GBV Referral pathways. Oxfam in Nigeria’s Enough Campaign collaborates with Women’s Rights Organizations and relevant Government actors in strengthening the GBV referral pathways for survivors of violence through our GBV interventions and shifting negative social norms that reinforce violence against women and girls.