The Network of Civil Society Organisations on Gender-Based Violence in Zamfara has urged the state government to establish a GBV survivors’ trust fund to provide financial and moral support to the survivors.

The network’s chairman, Ahmad Hashim, made the call during a meeting organised by the Voluntary Aid Initiative, an NGO based in Zamfara.

Mr Hashim said that the meeting was part of activities to mark the 2023 16 Days of Activism to End GBV Against Women and Girls (an annual global observance that runs from November 25, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, until December 10, which is Human Rights Day).

The campaign was started by activists at the inauguration of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 as a strategy by individuals and organisations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.

The Zamfara CSOs’ chairman said the fund’s establishment had become necessary “because of the high rate of GBV cases in Zamfara.

“The rate at which GBV issues are increasing in the state needs urgent intervention from the government and all other stakeholders. As CSOs, we are working as a network to tackle the menace,” Mr Hashim explained. “We are, therefore, calling on the state government to establish a GBV Survivors’ Trust Fund to provide both financial and moral support to survivors.”

The network chairman also appealed to the state government to increase the funding of the Sexual Assault and Referral Centres (SARC) so they could function effectively.

“As we always call, additional SARCs should be established in each of the three senatorial districts of the state,” said Mr Hashim.

He also appealed to the government to establish mobile courts for GBV cases and the justice ministry to ensure speedy trial of GBV perpetrators.

(NAN)