Bishops and their wives have been charged and trained on the establishment of a response mechanism to prevent and handle Gender Based Violence in their respective dioceses.

This call was made in Portharcourt, Rivers State Capital on Monday at the training on GBV capacity enhancement training for some bishops and their wives held at the St. Cyprain’s Anglican Church, Portharcourt where the Church of Nigeria’s Standing Committee meeting is holding.

The training which was organised by the Anglican Compassion And Development Initiatives (ACADI), a faith based organization of the Church of Nigeria in response to social ills in the family, church and the society at large as well as empowering the communities, had 25 couples (Bishops and their Wives) being trained to play a crucial role in the Church of Nigeria Transformational Response to Gender Based Violence Project. The 25 bishops and wives were part of the second year dioceses out of the 47 dioceses participating in the project, which is aimed at ensuring the church leaders who are the key influencers of the project understand fully their role in ensuring the success of the project.

The ACADI national coordinator, Mrs Abiodun Ipinmoye, noted that the objectives of this session is to enumerate the roles that would help in the smooth running of the project in the different dioceses.

“We are aware that even now Gender Based interventions occur in our churches and more than ever before issues affecting women and gender equality are being addressed through Biblical teachings, advocating against harmful practices against women in the church and the community, supporting GBV survivors, provision of safe shelter/ homes for GBV related issues and continuous education of members of our church on issues affecting men and women.

We want to salute our fathers and their amiable wives who are actively ensuring these interventions get to our members, silent culture being broken and justice served to the perpetrators, thus this project will be leveraging on this influence to shift further and now more decisively, dealing with social norms and behaviours that are related and encourage Gender Based Violence.”

The training also had workshop sessions for heads of theological colleges of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, with the aim to mainstream the training modules into the theological school curriculum for training of priests to ensure all priests understand their roles in preventing GBV in the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion.

The Program coordinator of ACADI, Mr. Chibuike Iroegbu shared with newsmen some of the roles of Bishops and their Wives in the project of preventing GBV as follows:

• Nominating strong and competent persons (Desk Officer and Snr. Clergy) to be in charge of the CON GBV Project in the diocese
• Provide Oversight function on the Desk Officer and Senior Clergy in the discharge of their responsibilities.
• Ensure GBV Prevention teachings, learnings and activities are mainstreamed into sermons religious instructions, counselling sessions and other key activities of the church thus raising awareness about different forms of GBV as well as providing accurate information about legal rights and reporting mechanisms for survivors.
• Make strong “Policy Statement” in your diocese that would be adopted as a law in the diocese on the issues of Gender Based Violence among others.

He noted that this is the second year of training the Church fathers and mothers with the first year training focusing on the Archbishops and the Wives. He added that this year, the training is targeted towards 47 Dioceses which is divided into two batches.

Some of the facilitators, Venerable Dr. Olayemi Fatusi and Prof. Chinedu Babalola appreciated the participants and noted that they are counting on the support of the Church Fathers and Mothers as Champions and Key influencers in Preventing issues of GBV in the Church of Nigeria, believing that together we will stamp out the issues of GENDER BASED VIOLENCE in the Church and the society.

Korede Akintunde

CoN Communication Officer

17-02-2025