Mercy Corp Trains Women Leaders in Kogi on Violence Mitigation

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By Sam Egwu, Lokoja.

In a bid to mitigate conflicts in the society, the Mercy Corp organization has commenced an interest based negotiation and mediation training for local women leaders in Kogi State.

The training which debuts weekend in Lokoja, Kogi State, is part of the five years Community Initiatives to Promote Peace (CIPP), a program aimed at strengthening the capacity of women to mitigate conflicts in communities prone to conflicts.

Speaking at the training in Lokoja, the Deputy Chief of Party, Mercy Corp, Dani Suleiman said over the years, conflict has contributed in no small measures to tearing the country apart, hence the needs to involve local actress towards ensuring peaceful resolution.

He said violent crimes arising from conflicts were on the increase with women and children often at the receiving end, and there was need to curb it using human development strategy through empowerment and knowledge of rights.

“The increased number of violence we see in the society is huge and if we do not curb it by using a strategy that looks at human being and at human development, we will continue to experience violence and conflict everyday.

“Part of the content of this training is looking at violence and managing conflict, it’s looking at emergencies and how we respond. So, we are hoping to see that through this training, women are more empowered and they can go back to their communities and begin to cause those changes to happen, creating safe spaces.”

Suleiman said the training was a holistic package that focused on women issues, how to demand and negotiate their rights and build capabilities to positively impact their families and the wider environment.

He also noted that the essence will help women to identify earlier conflicts and how to resolve it focusing more not to disrupt homes but build better relationships, saying it was a constructive empowerment thing rather than destructive.

“They will be trained on how to handle conflict in a non violent way because women need to involve in peace building. They must understand the early warning and works through preventive measures rather than wait for responsive method.

“This program is building the capacity of local actress, religious and community leaders to resolve disputes in an inclusive manner; using the interest based negotiation and mediation approach, to effectively resolve disputes before they escalate and build relationships amongst conflicting group”.


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