By Temi Ohakwe, Abuja
The Federal government has been urged to increase awareness and reach out to communities across the country in tackling the menace of Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
The Founder of CeCe Yara Foundation, A Child Advocacy Center, Mrs Bola Tinubu, made the call in Abuja while addressing Journalists on the increasing cases of sexual abuse across the country.
Tinubu who stressed the need to reach out to children who are victims of such abuse, identified provision of safe space for the victims to disclose their abuse as key to ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable.
According her, “a lot of children suffers sexual abuse every day, they are in millions ,we need to reach out and help them, we need to provide them a safe space for them to disclose their abuse and ensure their perpetrators are held accountable”
She disclosed that a sexually abused child is a survival who needs to be supported.
“At our child advocacy center we have a very special service, which is called the child forensic service, this allows us to elicit valuable evidential information from children in a sensitive way, we help them get information that easily corroborated by the police so that we can have valuable evidence that can allow an individual to prosecute successfully”
She lamented under-reporting and alteration of SGBV cases, saying in Lagos State alone, 70percent of such cases are abandoned.
“They are abandoned because it is difficult for families to undergo the stress and pressure of community”.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen officially launched the Abuja office of the CeCe Yara Foundation and pledged the federal government’s support to the foundation on establishment of more centers across the country.
“One thing I applaud about Ceceyara foundation is their ability to provide Psycho social, medical, legal services to a victim under one roof in a confidential manner” Mrs Tallen said.
