Abuja, the nation’s capital, will on Saturday play host to exhibition organized by the Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI) in partnership with The Korean Cultural Centre in honour of women affected by terrorism.
The women and peace cultural exhibition is in commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Insurgency and Acts of Terrorism.
This was disclosed yesterday by the executive director of GSAI, Adaora Onyechere, in a statement she issued to journalists.
Onyechere said over the years the role of women in peace, mediation and reconciliation has diminished even in a time where insecurity is heightened in the country and women and children have become the burden bearers of this.
She stated that the plight has left a lot of women silenced in pain and some revisit misery as a consequence of serial attacks in their states and in their communities.
“The electioneering period has also set in and the conversation between candidates and the politics have further divided voices into ethno-religious and also reducing the most significant attribute of our nationhood which is our culture, our heritage and our diversity”, she added.
The exhibition, according to her, is in honour of the many women and girls excommunicated by the terrorism in the communities, to reignite hope in the hearts of those who remain by rekindling their trust through this exhibition of culture through arts, diversity through exclusive photography works of indigenous women from across the states.
She added that the exhibition will also showcase the works of the vulnerable women and how they have managed to survive through using arts and crafts.
According to her, “the objective of this event is to curate a support network for these women to enable them, with platforms to showcase their works and build partnerships.
“To unveil their talents, crafts and exhibit some of the amazing works these women have done and also to see through the works of artists their collection on how the journey of survival, the story of our culture and the trajectory of our diversity has been documented using creative arts.
“To raise awareness on the role of women, peace and mediation and engage key stakeholders.”
The gender advocate explained that the events will also popularize the need to end all forms of violence against women; bring a sense of understanding to the need for emergency intervention in the area of insecurity in the country as it affects women most. And build a compendium of visual data through the program.
“This is is an emergent situation and the need to raise awareness across all social clusters of both national and international is important”, she explained.
The event is scheduled to be flagged off by the Korean Cultural Centre and hosted by Gender Strategy Advancement International in partnership with Businessday, Nigerian Women Arts association, The Skilled Women Initiatives, Alex Reporters, Sparrow Productions, AIT, Arise News and others.
