Hi everyone!
This post has been in the works since last week but sooooo much has happened so I decided to just save it for our regular Thursday rendezvous 🙂
So last week I was in Abuja for the IFMSA Sub Regional Training which is the second ever to occur in Africa in the 66 years that the IFMSA has existed! [FYI: IFMSA – International Federation of Medical Students Association].
So what was the training about? The aim of the training was to educate people on everything to do with gender based violence (GBV), the definition, scope, types, it’s effect on the economy, psychological effects on the victims, the family – basically EVERYTHING there is to discuss on GBV was taught.
Who’s idea was the training? The IFMSA SCORA Regional Assistant for Africa, Toyosi Afolabi and my humble self, the IFMSA Program Coordinator for Gender Based Violence had this as our brainchild on our flight back from Burkina Faso last December after the IFMSA Africa Regional Meeting, we felt the need to do something about the way Gender Based Violence was thriving in Africa and even becoming publicly rampant, so we began putting together our proposal to get support from both governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations to make the training a reality – and it worked out! We partnered with Ipas who taught on advocacy and how to approach stakeholders in order to achieve the aim of tackling GBV as well as Heartland Alliance International who taught on how Humanitarian Crises predisposes to GBV as well as how to manage a GBV case as it presents at a health care facility. Both our external partners were well knowledgeable in the topics they taught and were very impressed by the vividness of the trainees – guys these are the best set of people I’ve trained ever! They all came as sponges with a genuine desire to learn and soak up as much knowledge about GBV – not just for their consumption but because they want to be strong advocates in their various schools & communities.
Have a look at some moments from the trainings 🙂
“Anal seX is 20 times riskIer for the transmission of Hiv than vaginal sex,” Dr Kayode, speaking on behalf of Heartland Alliance International
Y’all know all work and no play doesn’t apply to me! So of course I took the opportunity to visit my friends in the Federal Capital Territory and they showed me around the city, I had an awesome time 🙂
ETP At Whiteplains British College; both these flags signify a lot regarding my heritage, had to get a photo no matter how grainy lol ❤️ I loved every moment! Thank you to everyone that took out time to see me & show me around the city. Special shout out to my awesome IFMSA GBV Trainees and co-Trainers who were absolutely amazing from beginning to end ❤️
Till next week!
ETP xo
