by Chris Agbo,
Oxfam International celebrates the fifth anniversary of its VOICE project, succeeding in giving voice to their right holders who are women facing exploitation, abuse and violence, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities or indigenous group, age discriminated group particularly the young and elderly. Voice after wide consultations, was launched in Nigeria on Tuesday 17th of January, 2017 with call for proposal and so far Voice have had three successful call of proposals and their single goal is to strengthen the capacity of the voices of these rightholders.
It was fun and excitement among Voice team and their grantees as Oxfam International celebrates Voice@5 in Abuja Nigeria. The anniversary celebration which was held on Wednesday 7th April, 2021 saw all the Voice family in Nigeria come together to celebrate and look at their successes and chat a way forward as the project has been extended to 3 more years.
Ijeoma Okwor, the VOICE Nigeria project coordinator, said that the project funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherland and it is aimed at leaving no one behind. In Voice Nigeria, five rightholders are targeted, people with disabilities, women facing exploitation, abuse and violence, ethnic minority, age discriminated group (particularly young people and the elderly). The program is aimed in strengthening their capacity in order for them to use their voice to demand for better government, transparency and open government so that they can have a better life and have access to social services, employment and enhance their participation in societal activities.
Speaking further, she said that through the programme, they have been able to reach 50 communities in Nigeria and over half million people directly and indirectly and the initiative has recorded some giant strides including ensuring gender-sensitive training manual is compulsorily taken as a course in various correctional facilities, production of affordable sanitary pads by female inmates inside Suleja correctional facilities, sign language glossary adopted by FCT Primary Healthcare Board and National Commission for Persons with disabilities which is designed to assist Deaf women in accessing healthcare services, two women was incorporated in Igwe’s cabinet in Umuode community in Enugu State making them part of decision making body of the community, A fully equipped Cybercafe operational at Blind Vocational Centre, Jos, it is a resource centre for the blind particularly those who are students at University of Jos, A group of Youths Ambassadors who are making exploits all around the world, they came second in a global competition during COVID-19 lockdown, 3D module of disability inclusive service delivery developed to represent how women and girls with disabilities can comfortably access healthcare services in health facilities, it has been adopted by different stakeholders in the government, interrogation of issues that people don’t want to talk about such sex for grade, there are adolescent disability advocates advocating for inclusiveness of children with disabilities in 21 schools in Agege, Lagos State, Voice have also become part of Nollywood by a movie that was premiered last year known as YES WE CAN, the beauty of the movie is that the story was told by rightholders and they participated in it alongside Nollywood Stars, A co-operative of women farmers formed in Shendam, Plateau State who have gone to the extent of owing land in a community that it is difficult for women to own land, there is set of Gbagyi youths who are well coordinated and engaging in arts and crafts, there is also ethnic minority in Lagos state who are also persons with disabilities who have been empowered with paralegal skills to engage the government to provide legal support which includes bail negotiations for their community, these are people who have been told that they do not belong to Lagos State but today they are formidable force that when they speak, the government pay attention and Voice have also created many knowledge hubs where young people and women with disabilities engage.
All these were achieved with strategic engagement of the rightholders and some of them are Disability Rights Advocacy Center (DRAC), Deaf Women Aloud Initiative (DWAI), Street Project Foundation, Step to The Top Leadership Centre (STLC), Dew Drop Foundation, Ike foundation for Autism, The Qualitative Magazine(TQM), The Albino Foundation (Plateau State Chapter), Nigeria Association for The Blind (Plateau State Chapter), Inclusive Friends Association, Center for Advancement and Protection of Vulnerable People, Women and Girls Advancement and Resource Centre, Mothers Marginalised Advocacy Centre, Accountability Lab Nigeria, YES WE CAN youth initiative, African Caribbean Heritage Alliance, Royal School of Educative and Therapy, Network of People Living With Disability, Pankshin Market Women, Tribe XX lab, Centre for Liberty among others.
She also said that what is unique about Voice is that they fund the rightholders directly, for example when they say that they are funding the indigenous people, they do go to the communities and fund them directly and again they do not just work with NGOs working with people with disabilities, they are working with people with disabilities themselves, so they are working with people who are facing the challenges that understand their problems and peculiarities and this has contributed to a lot of success stories about the project in Nigeria.
It is only when it comes to high level influencing that they target NGOs that help in influencing and advocacy but basically, all Voice funding target directly the rightholders.
“We have five grant types, three of them target Enugu state, Plateau State, FCT and Lagos State while our sudden opportunity grant which we leave open because it attends to wherever human rights are being violated and through the sudden opportunity grant, we have reached Imo State, Kaduna State and few other states” she added.
She also said that their activities have also facing with a lot of challenges because they are working with those who are living the experience, it has been difficult getting them which it is quite challenging and even when you get them, most of them are not registered so it becomes so difficult giving them money to carry out their projects, in Voice normal practice, they would get an NGO to host them which most times it is also difficult because the NGO will only receive money on their behalf but not a beneficiary.
Speaking on way forward in the 3 years extension, she said that Voice will adopt other strategies to find the rightholders because they want to be louder and prouder. She said that the whole essence of their activities to leave no one behind so in the next three years, there should be conscious effort to reach every rightholder and get their voice heard.
Constant Tchona, Oxfam Country Director in Nigeria ably represented by Olumide Ojo, a project manager with Oxfam said that Oxfam is a global movement which has a mission of promoting inclusive society where everyone has equal opportunities. In Oxfam, we believe that every human has equal abilities but disabilities are of different level but our sustainable development depends on “the collective effort” we make to recognise the different levels of disabilities in the society. That is one practical thing we are achieving through the voice project with the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherland.
“What we are doing is to recognize different levels of abilities; we don’t call it disabilities. Recognizing people that are marginalized, whose rights have been trampled upon, people who ordinarily they are not given a chance for access opportunities, those are the people we work with and we hear different stories and testimonies from the celebration of the fifth year of VOICE, you will see how much Oxfam have been challenging negative social norms and cultural practices, for example the testimonies of a woman from Enugu State and how they were recognize and incorporated into Igwe’s Cabinet and given a right to own land, in Oxfam we are interested in women’s rights, working to see that they enjoy the same rights like men”.
A rightholder of Voice, a woman with disability, Ava Nyajo who is an ambassador of Street Project, a Voice grantee, said that through the Boot camp, she discovered her abilities and that was how she found out that she can sing, dance and also good at other creative arts, she has gotten a voice to speak about inclusion and speak for those with mental health issues. She also said that a lot still need to be done when it comes to inclusion of persons with disabilities, there is still absence of ramps in many public buildings, inaccessible toilets, and she used to stay indoors which affected her mental health and it is lack of accessible facilities that has been preventing many people with disabilities from coming out like people without disabilities.
Antonia Ede, a rightholder from Umuode Community, Enugu state in her remark said that the project helped women in her community in some many ways especially abolishing cultural practices such as widows being required to stay indoors, leaving their hair unkempt and not combing it for one month, women with no male child inheriting lands and other properties.
She said that the project has also made it possible for women in their community to be part of decision making and for the first time, two women have become cabinet members of the Igwe-in-council.
The event also witnessed a lot of dance, drama, singing, spoken words organized by Voice Nigeria grantees mainly Street Project Foundation and presentation of a documentary showcase the Voice grantees activities including linking and learning which have helped in connecting the activities of these different rightholders to synergize and achieve more results and also joining the celebration with Voice global via zoom.
Step to The Top Leadership Centre presented an award to Voice Nigeria Team on behalf of the entire grantees.
Below are some pictures of the event:
