The Team Lead/State Project Director of Centre of Integrated Health Programme (CIHP), Dr. Emmanuel Udeh, says 83 percent of reported incidents of sexual and gender-based violence in some parts of Nigeria had indications of HIV infection.
He revealed this alarming figure during the visit of a delegation from CIHP to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) in Lagos.
While Dr. Udeh lamented that most cases of SGBV are not reported, he stressed the need to ensure a curb in its spread, considering that Lagos is a commercial hub.
The Permanent Secretary of WAPA, Mrs. Oluyemi Kalesanwo, who received the delegation said that poverty has the face of a woman, as such, intervention strategies should do more to benefit women.
According to her, women’s empowerment remains a focal tool for poverty alleviation across the State; noting that majority of problems associated with poverty can only be adequately curbed if women are allowed spaces in decision-making processes.
She said, “That is why WAPA is passionate about its resolve to embrace all developmental strategies with Governmental agencies to build resourceful women who can contribute meaningfully to economic growth.”
While reiterating the various empowerment programmes initiated by the Ministry, the Perm Sec. explained that every social group including People Living with Disabilities, Sickle-Cell Anaemia and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) sufferers are included in the scheme.
The developmental strategies, she said are focused on ensuring that the plights of women are well alleviated for the purpose of helping to build a society that is progressive and highly focused.
Also, Dr. Udeh averred that most orphans under the mission of CIHP’s intervention programme had acquired skills which require collaboration with WAPA for the sustainability of such programmes to beneficiaries, especially on identified cases of HIV to ensure survivors have a space in the human capacity building sphere.
