The United Nations (UN) Women’s Wing has announced plans to establish a mobile counselling hub to tackle Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Katsina State. According to Mr Jonah Yahaya, the Programme Coordinator of the Bridge That Gap (BTG) initiative, an NGO that is implementing the UN-Women’s Peace Building Fund (PBF) project, the proposed counselling hub is designed to provide counselling on the go to address issues such as depression, insomnia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other related issues.
The counselling hub will be established to sensitize people in both urban and rural communities on the need to address GBV issues and to provide solutions to people at the grassroots level. Mr Yahaya revealed that the project, which is being piloted in Kaduna and Katsina, will initially cover Kaita and Faskari Local Government Areas. However, they are hoping to extend this initiative to other Local Government Areas shortly.
The BTG initiative is designed to provide mental health and psycho-social support to GBV survivors, especially women who are often at the forefront of these issues but do not receive the necessary care they deserve. The training and sensitisation exercise is aimed at identifying lay counsellors who have been working on GBV issues within the communities and assessing their capabilities on MHPSS. The counsellors will be equipped with the necessary knowledge to address GBV issues within their communities, provide care to survivors of GBV, and follow up until the survivor receives justice.
It is noteworthy that the programme is a big innovation and initiative of the UN, especially through the UN Women, and is aimed at resolving conflicts and addressing GBV issues down to the barest minimum. The UN is committed to promoting gender mainstreaming in the provision of MHPSS, especially for the survivors of GBV. The UN believes that both men and women should be involved in resolving conflicts, and the proposed counselling hub is a step in the right direction towards achieving this goal.
