Justice Development and Peace Centre (JDPC) of Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos has called for collective action towards elimination of violence against women.
The group made the call at the celebration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which was held at the Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Coker, Orile, Lagos recently.
The theme of the event was “Orange the World, Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect.”
In his Keynote address, the Very Reverend Fr. Raymond Anoliefo, Director, Justice Development and Peace Centre, Archdiocese of Lagos said violence against women emanated from the idea of masculinity , societal norms, and cultures that are probably archaic that need to be changed as well.
On what needed to be done, he said that all hands must be on deck, “Everyone must be involved, civil society organizations just like us, religious bodies, institutions, the family must be involved and of course , the government, so that we must stop this impunity. Perpetrators of violence against women must not go scot-free any more, we must work the talk, and for all those who are victims, we make sure we encourage them to break the silence, to speak out, we must stop blaming the victims and there is a whole lot that we can do, but this conversation is just the beginning, we must continue this conversation before we can say we have gotten to the eldorado.”
He explained that the negative impact of violence on the woman is enormous and cannot be quantified. “From economic impact, poverty, mental issues, psychological, emotional and most times, you find out that even it affects generations yet unborn, because children who grow up in homes where there is abuse, most times end up being abusers themselves. So , you see, from father, it gets down to the children, and you see the children exhibiting it in school, churches, in their areas of engagements.
So, we just have to continue because the impact is so much.
“There is also the economic challenge, the women no longer want to fulfill their God given potentials, it affects the country as a whole, societal development as a whole, every area, the girl child seems not to believe any more in herself, it is a very disastrous situation that we have found ourselves.” (Sun)