By Bisi Ajayi-Kayode | Chief Operations Officer
Cece Yara’s GlobalGiving Report for January-March 2022 - Making Impact in Ensuring Child Protection
1. Cece Yara’s Organisation Sustainability Plan
The performance of every organization depends on the efficiency of its human capital and as such it is important for management of organizations to invest in constant training and development to improve the work proficiencies of their staff. This the Cece Yara Foundation has done by kicking the ground running for 2022 in holding its Strategic meeting on Thursday, January 13 2022.
The guest speaker at the meeting was no other person than Mrs. Ndifreke Okwuegbunam, Director Programs and Grants, Act Foundation, who facilitated a session on Organizational Sustainability – for Non-profits. She gave deep insights in to a step by step organizational strategy for viable sustainability which had given the Cece Yara team more motivation to make impact.
2. Lagos State Governments Approval to Operate the Cece Yara Clinic
Global evidence has shown that when responding to child sexual abuse, the overriding priority is always the health and welfare of the child necessitating the need for high quality care provided at a site where there is optimal access to the full range of services and facilities required to ensure a safe, survivor centered approach to sexual violence while ensuring the utmost privacy. In some jurisdictions, the health and medico-legal components of the service response to sexual violence are provided at different times, in different places and by different people making the process duplicative, fragmented and re-traumatizing for the survivor. The global recommendation to this problem has always being a one-stop response which the Cece Yara Foundation has successfully accomplished with the approval of the Lagos State Government Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMMA) on 14th January, 2022 to operate its medical clinic as a WARIF Satellite clinic located within its center to relieve the burden on survivors from travelling from one agency to the other. This will increase the bar for victim support services as the Foundation’s clients will be able to access medical, legal, forensic interview, psycho-social services at no cost at the same venue.
3. Adoption by Grange Group of School as the Charity Organisation of the Year
The Foundation was privileged to host delegates of the Grange Group of Schools Charity Club who visited the Foundation on a collaborative visit on the 14th of January having benefited from the Foundation’s Child Safeguarding and Protection training (Safe Kids Awareness Prevention Programme) and have now adopted the Foundation as its Charity organisation for the year 2022 with the School educators participating in the Foundation’s UNICEF funded empowerment programme for educators Programme for Educators in 2019 .
The Charity Club students of the School further engaged the Foundation on the 31st of March via an online interview in the conduct of their research on global perspectives on SGBV as it affects children to empower the students’ response to SGBV.
The School has also taken further steps to message the Foundation’s vision and mission in ensuring child protection from sexual abuse during its Bake –sale and T-shirt day of the school to generate awareness about the Foundation’s programme services.
4. Judgement Obtained in the Case of Child Defilement
The Foundation obtained judgement in the case of defilement of a 14year old girl it institted at the Sexual offences court of Lagos state on the 31st of January, 2022.
The case was reported to the foundation through our toll-free Child Helpline - 08008008001, in respect of the 34 year old security guard of the survivor’s parent’s house, who had been serially defiling the 14 years old survivor since she was 9 years old. The Cece Yara Foundation facilitated access to justice for the survivor by documenting the case with the police, institution of the case in court and also providing medical and psychosocial services for the survivor.
The judge believed that the prosecution had been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offence of defilement having proved all three ingredients of defilement provided under section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015. The judge, therefore, sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment without an option of a fine and further ordered that the defendants' name be documented in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.
5. Safe Kids Awareness Prevention Training Programme at Setraphy International Academy
The Foundation implemented its Safe Kids Awareness Prevention Training Programme for pupils of Setraphy Academy in Lugbe FCT Abuja on the 16th of February wherein the children were empowered on body boundaries, case reporting, the concept of trusted adults and coping skills. About 60 children benefited from the training.
6. Participation in the Launch of the Standard Operating Procedure for SGBV/VAWG/HP Integrated Service Provision for Persons Living with Disabilities
The Foundation has worked hard alongside the Centre for Women’s Health and Information (CEWHIN) as part of its EU-UN Spotlight Initiative in collaboration with the Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs (LASODA) and the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) to ensure that support for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) is being mainstreamed into the efforts towards prevention and response to SGBV in the state. This climaxed into a consultative workshop and peer review meeting on developing a Standard Operating procedure (SOP) for VAWG/SGBV/HP Integrated Service Provision for Persons with Disabilities in Lagos State. Based on recommendations during the peer review meeting, the SOP was finalized and launched on the 25th of February, 2022 to prioritize service provisions for Persons Living with Disabilities (PWLD).
7. Collaboration with the Children’s Parliament
The Nigerian Children’s Parliament who paid a collaborative visit to the Foundation on the 16th of March, 2022 to glean more support for its advocacy for the domestication of the Child Rights Act by all states of the Federation with effective implementation, advocacy for a nationwide study to understand the current dynamics of child sexual abuse, addressing the power imbalance structure of the society that condones abuse and the need for a viable witness protection programme while ensuring child participation about issues that concerns them all of which align with Cece Yara’s strategic objectives in ensuring child protection from sexual abuse.
This was followed by a radio programme by both organisation titled ‘’the Child’s View of Sexual Abuse’’ to sensitise adults on the impact of child sexual abuse and the urgent need for child participation in formulating policies in issues that concerns them.
8. Legislative Advocacy for Child Forensic Interview as the Best Practice of Investigating and Prosecuting Child Sexual Abuse Cases
The Foundation in fulfillment of its strategic objectives for legislative advocacy paid a courtesy visit to the Attorney General of Lagos state on the 25th of March, 2022 to glean the establishment and implementation of a standard child sexual abuse investigation and interview protocol and a Multi-Disciplinary Team approach which will ultimately escalate in to a legal framework for admissibility of evidence procured through forensic interview to facilitate quicker and more effective investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse cases.
This succeeded in obtaining the buy-in of the Attorney General of Lagos State who set up a Steering Committee to develop and implement a Standardized Child Investigative and Interview Protocol to facilitate quicker and more effective investigative and prosecution of child sexual abuse cases.
9. HIVE ADVOCACY MIXER
The Foundation participated at the #BreakTheBias Brainstorm & Brunch, hive advocacy mixer on the 31st of March, 2022. The event was a unique opportunity to bring together influencer champions and advocates to connect, share ideas, align on synergies to maximize advocacy for Gender Equality and Family Planning causes in Nigeria. There was a fluid and informative presentation of the Foundation’s programme services which created intimacy with the audience of influencer champions and fellow advocates to increase awareness on the best practices of professional service response deployed by the Foundation.
10. Scholarship for an Infant Survivor of Human Trafficking
The Cece Yara Foundation facilitated the emergency rescue of a baby that was abducted within 24 hours of delivery in 2019 and also placed the biological mother in a rehabilitation center to get healed and adjusted to live a normal post-abusive life. The Foundation has also facilitated scholarship for the infant who is now 2years plus for pre-school education.
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