12th March 2007 saw the Executive Director of DOVENET, Chief Mrs. Ugo Nnachi at Smith College Seelye Massachusetts USA giving a speech on African men and Gender-based violence.
She carefully analyzed the topic knowing that violence, in general, affects millions of lives, especially in the African continent.
She went further to present some heart-wrenching statistics to show the shocking dimensions Gender-based violence has reached:
- Daily Sun Newspaper of February 13 2004 reported that twenty-year-old Sandra Ndukwe lost her pregnancy because her boyfriend kicked her in the stomach and she miscarried.
- Daily Sun of Monday, December 1, 2003, reported that a man, Mr. Ojo Odeyemi aged 51 set their house ablaze and smiled as his wife, two children, and mother roasted.
These were a few of the tear-inducing statistics which Mrs. Ugo Nnachi presented.
She stated some causes of men’s violence as Culture, socialization, poverty, societal acceptance, and no laws to protect victims.
In closing she mentioned some actions men can take to end Gender-based violence:
Formation of community vanguards against violence
- Setting high benchmarks of non-violence in spite of provocation
- Participating in periodic family sharing sessions to relieve tension.
She concluded by stating that the war against GBV can be won with careful planning and implementation and urging women to speak up and break the culture of silence.
Several years later, Chief Mrs. Ugo Nnachi is still actively involved in the fight against Gender-based violence through the Momentum Country and Global Leadership project which is being implemented presently by DOVENET in Ebonyi state and aims at addressing major contributors to maternal mortality and morbidity through the prevention and mitigation of consequences of violence against women and girls and possible drivers of Child Early and Forced Marriage CEFM, Intimate Partner Violence IPV, Sexual violence SV and early adoption of family planning
