The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. It was started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. It is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.
The 2021 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence- an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. This year’s Global theme is “Orange the world: End violence against women now!”
HALG program adopted a central content style for the event to allow for visibility of contents from across the program states. This approach called “16 DAYS AROUND THE ZONES” allowed for each state and zones to have days fully dedicated to activities that spotlights promotion of the cause of the vulnerable.
To support the process, tool kit was developed containing shareable contents, banners, fliers, fact sheets, jingles, about the Events, pledge forms, informed consent forms, dissemination plan, story structure for different preferred platforms.
To mark the day, Heartland Alliance Nigeria across her KP-CARE 1 project states commemorated the days to calls for global actions to increase awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations. The following activities took place across the zones:
- Road walk and social media campaign to create awareness and mobilizing support for the fight against GBV
- In Akwa Ibom state, HALG collaborated with the wife of the Governor of Akwa-Ibom State to flagged off the day with a road walk and a sensitization campaign. In attendance were the Commissioner for Health and Commissioner for Women Affairs.
- Also, in Akwa Ibom state, HALG as a member of Coalition Against Rape and GBV partnered with International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) to host a one-day Symposium towards Elimination of Violence against Women in the state. The event featured drama presentation, seminar on the global theme “End Violence Against Women Now” and a presentation which is design to prohibit violence against persons in the state.
- In Lagos state, staff, community members and program beneficiaries did a one kilometer (1 km) walk in honor of women who have been victims of violence, GBV. The walk was followed by a film show titled Rosemary’s Fight, a movie that depicted the various forms of violence against women.
- In Obalende, Lagos state, there was road walk with an accompanied live band provided music with staffs and community members. Various Info-flyers were handed out to people during the walk to draw attention to the focus of the event. There was also a movie screening in the community center on the island for participating community members and project beneficiaries. The movie- We don’t live anymore centered around the LGBT community and gender base violence. Further talk and trauma informed counselling and psychosocial support was also provided for participants.
Photos
Participants during film show titled Rosemary’s Fight- a movie that depicted the various forms of violence against women
