By Ibrahim Hassan, Kaduna

Senior Project Officer of International Alert, (IA), Sunday Jimoh Momoh, has  said that his NGIO with funding from United Kingdom Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF) has trained 30 women on peace building in Kaduna  and Zamfara States  to be Peace Ambassadors in their respective communities.

He spoke during a workshop  in Kaduna where the participating women cane from  Jema’a and Chikun Local GovernmentAreas of Kaduna State , and others from Tsafe and Birnin Magaji in  Zamfara state.

 Jimoh Momoh said  the project also aimed at supporting stabilisation, local justice and Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) prevention through broadening inclusion, accountability and managing tension to reduce violence in Zamfara and Kaduna states.

“The capacity-building workshop which was on conflict, gender sensitivity and advocacy, was designed for members of the Women Peace Network (WOPEN) who were selected from four Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the project’s intervention,” he said.

He lamented that conflict and violence have impacted on peace, stability, access to justice and socio-economic development of the states and other parts of the NorthWest and North East.

“The Network comprised of women in leadership, women from different ethnic and religious groups and also women from the Police, and NSCDC, among others.”

The Communication Officer Global Peace Development (GPD) , Jamila Yakubu told journalists that the program was also to encourage sustainable networks and platforms for vulnerable groups to demand justice and promote accountability, provide skills and knowledge for women and other vulnerable groups towards integration in decision-making processes.

She said  they also worked  with Sexual and Assault Referral Centers in order to bring the women together.

“Not just women alone, we are also focusing on the male gender too because when we only focus on one, we are not going to have good results so this capacity building for our women is to go back to the community and do a step down training for our participants and other Community members.,” she added.

Secretary, Women for Peace Network (WOPEN), Hadiza Umar, said in an interview that she really learned a lot at the workshop, coming from a community  with various degrees of conflict associated with religion,that  caused a rift between religious leaders.

Hadiza said ” now I know the best approach to use and see how we can bring these stakeholders together. I will share what I have learnt with fellow women so we can sit down and discuss best modalities to foster peaceful coexistence among residents of our dear community.”

A Police personnel at the workshop, Constance Didia  said she had learned techniques on how to create awareness among men.

According to the officer, ” this is because when you talk about SGBV, everybody will always focus on the female. So by the reason of this workshop today, we will go back home and tell the men that they have the right to speak out. They do not have to die in silence. Violence related to men is a criminal offence so you treat it with equity the same way you treat the female. Learning is a process so there are many knowledge we have added to the ones I knew in the course of discharging my duties.”