Category: Gender

For five powerful days, women from 23 communities across Enugu State gathered with one shared goal – to rise, lead, and transform their communities.

Under the Community Partnership for the Elimination of Gender-Based Violence (ComPEG) Project, supported by the Ford Foundation, South Saharan Social Development Organisation (SSDO) held the Women’s Agency Building Training. to rekindle courage, strengthen networks, and equip women with practical tools for leadership and advocacy.

Rising Against Harmful Practices

The training was born out of deep listening. Before it began, SSDO carried out a baseline assessment to understand the realities women face daily.
The findings were stark! Harmful practices like widowhood rites, wife battery, child marriage, and denial of inheritance rights persist across communities. Yet, amid these challenges, the team found something equally powerful: women’s courage.

As Dr. Stanley Ilechukwu, SSDO’s Executive Director, explained during the opening session:

“We saw women already holding families together, already speaking out in small ways, already protecting others. What was missing was stronger agency, stronger networks, and stronger skills to lead change.

And that is exactly what the five-day training set out to build.

Each day unfolded with purpose and passion

On Day 1, women explored their realities, learned about leadership from within, and discovered how collective action can drive social change.

Day 2 deepened their knowledge of women’s rights and protective laws, including the VAPP Law, and gave them hands-on experience drafting community bylaws to challenge harmful norms.

By Day 3, participants learned how to support survivors, link them to help, and use creative storytelling to shift mindsets, culminating in a drama session that filled the room with laughter, emotion, and insight.

Day 4 focused on building economic power for social power, sustaining wellbeing, and using evidence to measure progress.

Finally, on Day 5, the women explored coalition-building, community action planning, and the Sister Guardian Initiative (their own framework for local advocacy and accountability).

Every session ended with renewed determination and applause that echoed with promise.

From Knowledge to Action

Though each woman proudly received a certificate at the end, it was nit just about certificates. It was about confidence, agency, and transformation. The pre- and post-test assessments confirmed that women were thinking differently, speaking boldly, and ready to act.
SSDO’s approach to empowerment is deliberate and sustainable – helping women challenge harmful practices one step at a time, turning small wins into lasting change.

The Ripple Effect Begins

The women left not as participants, but as community changemakers, ready to engage traditional leaders, advocate for survivors, and train others in their rights.
The seeds planted during thefive days will grow far beyond the training hall, shaping homes, markets, churches, and local decision-making spaces.

Because when women rise, communities rise.

When a tradition hurts more than it heals, it’s time to ask hard questions.

In Enugu State, our journey toward community-led change is taking shape, one conversation, one community, one honest truth at a time.

SSDO conducted a baseline assessment that revealed deeply troubling statistics:
🔹 22% of women in Enugu State have experienced sexual assault.
🔹 41% were first assaulted from the age of 15.

But the numbers told only part of the story.

Our analysis pointed to a critical connection between gender-based violence (GBV) and harmful traditional practices – practices that are normalized, passed down, and rarely questioned.

To understand the specifics, we launched a Community Needs Assessment across all 17 Local Government Areas, reaching into everyday realities that national data often misses. We asked hard questions, conducted surveys, and listened closely, not to prove a point, but to uncover the truth.

The stories we heard were disturbing yet familiar:

• Girls married off to trees.
• Women denied inheritance.
• Masquerade festivals that limit women’s movement.
• Young wives punished in silence.

Community Entry: Trust First

As researchers and development workers, we know that change doesn’t happen without consent. That’s why we began the next phase of our work with community entry – a culturally grounded process of introduction and mutual respect.

In the past month, we completed community entry in 22 communities across Enugu State.

From Ihenyi to Aninri, we sat with traditional rulers, women leaders, town union executives, and community elders. We listened before we spoke. We shared our findings. And we invited communities to lead the conversation about what needs to change and how.

These meetings weren’t always easy. They were filled with honest debate, differing worldviews, and moments of deep cultural reflection. But they were necessary. And they were received with warmth, curiosity, and the kind of openness that signals true readiness for transformation.

What’s Next: Engaging Stakeholders

Now, we move to the next phase: stakeholder engagement.

We are convening the very people who influence cultural norms – traditional rulers, religious leaders, women’s groups, youth reps, and local influencers. These are the gatekeepers and bridge-builders, the ones whose voices carry both legacy and the power to shift it.

Our goal is not to impose, but to collaborate and to shape solutions that protect without erasing culture, and empower without creating division.

Looking Ahead: Building Women’s Agency
Beyond meetings and conversations, we want women in these communities to lead the change.

The final phase of this cycle will focus on building women’s agency; equipping them with tools, knowledge, and confidence to lead step-down activities, raise awareness, and challenge harmful norms from within, because real change doesn’t come from the outside. It comes when women are seen, heard, and supported; not in whispers, but in full voice.