By Olukorede Yishau
They were lonely times with seemingly longer nights and days and weeks that appeared to be dragging and unwilling to become a month.
Everything was strange; miles apart from the known. A wicked virus had just crashed into the world seeking a place in villages, in towns and cities. Nowhere was safe. Beaches were closed, cinemas locked, recreation centres sealed.
The Kabah was empty, the ever-busy Times Square was deserted and the beaches in Miami were roaring with no one to dash in and out of them.
The world simply took a forced break and there were coronavirus deaths everywhere across the globe; friends and neighbours who had been breadwinners lost jobs; well-wishers happily accepted pay cuts and businesses took decisions that would have been unthinkable.
Capitalism had no choice but to be ruthless, tearing down walls. Birds no longer sounded like birds. And rats sounded like some other rodents.
But there was a different kind of challenge on the home front across Nigerian cities. Couples not used to staying at home together for long had no choice but to stay home for months in 2020 following full or partial lockdowns introduced by the government to contain the virus named Coronavirus.
Before the forced stay at home, gender-based violence (GBV) was very common. Nigeria, according to statistics from the Centre for Women’s Health and Information (CEWHIN), has long been facing a gender-based violence crisis, with 30 per cent of women and girls aged 15-49 having experienced sexual abuse.
The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown increased the instances of violence in Nigeria to heights never attained.
Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, its next-door neighbour, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory were under full lockdown for weeks in 2020. A study by CEWHIN shows that reports of domestic violence cases rose from 60 in March 2020 to 238 in April the same year—an increase of 297 per cent.
The number of reported cases in March and April 2020 for 23 of Nigeria’s 36 states shows a monthly increase of 149 per cent due to lockdown.
The violence left many abused women stranded and seeking refuge anywhere they could get. Like most things about the country, there were not enough temporary shelters where women in dire need could run to.
Unlike Canada with a population of 37 million and more than 400 women’s shelters, Nigeria with a population of 200 million-plus has less than 20 shelters for women. Its prevalent culture of gender-based violence did little or nothing to increase the shelters over the years forcing most victims to seek refuge with families and friends.
The increase in the GBV was described by a commentator as pandemic within pandemic and it was clear the victims need to find rest of mind for their bodies and peace for their souls—thus began moves by pro-women non-governmental organisations to berth more shelters.
Two of such homes have sprouted out of Lagos soils this year. There is one on the mainland in neighbourhoods far from the madding crowd. And the other is in the Lekki Peninsula part of the city of aquatic splendour.
The one on the mainland is named Hearts of Hope Shelters. When you walk into it, you see deliberate efforts to make the occupants feel at home away from home. The living room has two couches that sit one person each; there is a two-seater and also a three-seater— all sitting pretty on a green rug with blue and yellow patterns.
The off-white wall hosts an abstract artwork depicting a woman. The bright colours of the painting seem to be screaming: there is hope after a storm. An artificial flavour in a vase stands just after the arc that separates the living room from one of the rooms in the home. Atop the plasma television, which overlooks the centre table, is an inscription: Hearts of Hope, Lagos.
In the Lekki Peninsula axis of Lagos lies a new shelter known as the Sholly Serenity Place, whose yellow-patterned wallpaper, yellow chairs and yellow centre table radiate calm. The kitchen area boasts of modern gadgets: gas cooker, microwave oven, electric kettle and more— meant to make life abundant for its temporary residents. The sitting room and the room are also painted light yellow giving the ambience a calm mien.
These homes, which offer temporary shelters for victims of gender-based violence, benefitted from the generosity of individuals and organisations who contributed either cash or utensils.
They also provide survivors, widows and other at-risk persons with financial assistance and academic scholarships. Skills acquisition training is organised in areas such as soap making and tie and dye for the occupants of the home so that they can be self-reliant after leaving the homes.
The homes also cater to their psychosocial health issues. They are also counselled regularly on how to avoid violence in the future. These two homes value God and the occupants are reminded that God is fond of them. They are also told not to feel like guests but family. And they are made to see themselves as special and undeserving of violence of any form.
The Sholly Serenity Place says it is a ‘haven and an oasis of serenity for vulnerable women, victims of domestic/sexual abuse’. It was founded by the Shola Adefolalu Gaska Foundation, a non-profit organisation.
“Our mandate is to provide safe and caring temporary accommodation for these women while they work with organisations such as the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), Women at Risk International Foundation WARIF), Mirabel Centre, Project Alert amongst others to get the required help and counselling they need. Guests referred to us will be accommodated, fed and cared for totally free,” the foundation says.
The Hearts of Hope Shelter, established by the Betty Abah-led Cee Hope Foundation, says it is out to give hope at a time when “the COVID-19 era is witnessing a major spike in Gender-Based Violence”.
With these two homes, women now have more homes to stay in when they fall victims to GBV, but more are certainly required given the huge population of animals in human skin who call themselves spouses.
• Yishau is a newspaper columnist and author of’In The Name of Our Father’and’Vaults’.