The Gender Advocacy and Women Resource Center (GAWRC) has intensified community-level sensitization on harmful traditional practices affecting women and girls through a series of engagements with women’s groups and community leaders across Sabageria, Oyobo and Odi communities in Bayelsa State.
The engagements provided platforms for community stakeholders to openly discuss harmful traditional practices, their impact on women and girls, and the need for collective action to challenge practices that undermine their rights, dignity, safety and wellbeing.
In Odi Community, GAWRC engaged a women’s group in a sensitisation session focused on harmful traditional practices. The discussion created an opportunity for women to share their experiences, identify practices of concern within the community and explore ways of promoting positive change.
A similar engagement was held in Oyobo Community, where GAWRC met with a women’s group to raise awareness about harmful traditional practices and their effects on women and girls. Participants were encouraged to become advocates for change within their families and communities and to speak up against practices that perpetuate inequality and violence.
In Sabageria Kingdom, GAWRC engaged community leaders from the Tami-Burudani communities in a sensitisation meeting on harmful traditional practices. The engagement underscored the critical role of community leadership in influencing social norms, protecting women and girls, and promoting practices that uphold their rights and wellbeing.
GAWRC was represented during the engagements by its Project Manager, Bayelsa Field Officer and Community Mobilisers, who facilitated discussions and interacted with participants on the importance of community ownership in preventing harmful practices.
The engagements further demonstrated the importance of working directly with community leaders and women’s groups to identify harmful norms, promote informed conversations and encourage sustainable behavioural change.
Through these interventions, GAWRC continues to strengthen community voices and partnerships in the fight against harmful traditional practices and Gender-Based Violence, while promoting safer, more inclusive communities where women and girls can live with dignity and without fear of violence or discrimination.
