PROGRAMS AND EVENTS

U.S. Seed Grant Helps Nigerian NGO Launch Journalists Against Violence Against Women Network

Date: November 26, 2008
Venue: Abuja

From Left CPAO Ms. Atim Eneida George, NUJ President, Mr. Ndagene Akwu, and NAWOJ President, Mrs. Fatimah Abdulkareem | Full size

A micro grant given by the Minnesota-based Center for Victims of Torture to a Nigerian NGO, the BOABAB for Women’s Human Rights in 2004 has given birth new to a network of Journalists Against Violence Against Women (JAVAW). 

The U.S. Mission’s Counselor for Public Affairs Atim Eneida George represented Ambassador Robin Sanders at the formal launch of JAVAW at the Shehu Yar’Adua Center in Abuja on Wednesday, November 26, 2008.

“I deeply identify with your cause,” Ms. George told a rapt audience as she shared a deeply personal and painful story of violence against a member of her family in the depths of a bitterly cold winter day in Chicago.

She said, “We can honor the memories of those who have suffered in similar ways, take up their cause and fight for justice and peace, not using the weapons of violence but the tools of compassion and reason to speak to the hearts and minds of this generation.”

The program organized by the BOABAB for Women’s Human Rights in collaboration with the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ); this effort is  the result of a one-day workshop held on December 8, 2004 for journalists working in Lagos on using New Tactics to advance Women’s Human Rights Issues in Nigeria.

NAWOJ plans to launch the JAVAW network in all the 36 states of Nigeria.