A 2021 fellow of the ReportWomen! Female Reporters Leadership Programme, Osaruonamen Ibizugbe, has equipped the next generation of storytellers with sustainable approaches to reporting gender issues focusing on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). She did as her leadership project under the Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement Champion Building. The training workshop took place virtually as the duo of Lois Aderomose, a certified SGBV advocate and Pauline Olorunyomi, human rights activist, joined as resource persons.
Aderomose took participants through the different definitions of FGM, its consequences, and the reasons for FGM. In prescribing solutions to the FGM scourge, the member of the Global Media Campaign to End FGM highlighted support for women and girls, development of policies and legislations for adequate resources as some of the ways to end FGM.
Participants were given an in-depth insight into national and international legal frameworks on FGM by Olorunyomi as she described the scourge as a development issue. The Nigerian legal system and roles of the federal, state and local governments in enacting laws prohibiting FGM in Nigeria were discussed. She taught participants about the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act and attention to sections that speaks to the area of focus.
Participants were trained on how to use the media to spotlight issues around FGM, media’s role in increasing public awareness about social issues, shaping public discourse and influencing policymakers’ decisions by Ibizugbe.
