CEE-HOPE INTERACTIVE: Recent Episodes
CEE-HOPE INTERACTIVE
This podcast features a number of series mirroring the plights and aspirations of Nigerian women and children on a variety of issues. Ranging from a focus on the rising incidences of domestic violence against women in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to how children and young people have fared in the same pandemic, these series come raw, are authentic, and brought you in the voices of the typically unheard, marginalised and forgotten majority. You would love what you hear.
But we would love it even more if these voices are heard far and near and that much needed change comes as a result.
This episode of our podcast show on 'End the Cutting Culture', features leading sexuality and women and children's rights advocate, Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode. Dr. Olufemi-Kayode who is the founder of the non-governmental group, Media Concern for Women and Children (MEDIACON), speaks compellingly on the physical, psychological and social impacts of the harmful traditional practice. She also proffers solutions and advises stakeholders on the way forward.
Besides being an advocate, wait for it, Dr. Princess as she is also a survuvor of FGM. A known vocal activist, she also shares her experience here.
Listen and be inspired!
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is one of the worst forms of violence perpetuated against women and girls in several parts of the world especially in Africa. It entails the forceful and brutal destruction of their sexuality in the name of culture.
Yet, it is someone who has undergone FGM that truly know where the shoe pinches. In the latest edition of our podcast show on FGM, 'Cut the Cutting Culture,' we interviewed Ms Yinka Kenny, notable Nigerian On-Air Personality and a women and girl’s rights advocate.
In this frank talk, she narrates how she discovered she had been circumcised at a younger age. She also opens up on the effects on her sexuality and other areas and advises against the dehumanizing culture.
Do listen and share.
In honour of the kick-off of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we are launching our new series which highlights the injustices of the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) practice in Nigeria.
To headline this series and this day is the distinguished Debbie Ariyo, OBE, Nigerian-born, United Kingdom-based child’s rights activist and anti-trafficking champion. Ms Ariyo is the founder of AFRUCA Child Safeguarding-UK, a nonprofit which works on child safeguarding and child trafficking issues in African diaspora communities in the UK and provides services to help support children and families as well as rehabilitate victims. She also established the Black and Minority Ethnic, BME Anti-Slavery Network (BASNET) to help promote racial equity, diversity and inclusion in the UK anti-trafficking sector. Highly awarded and respected for her work, Ms Ariyo was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England in 2011 for her remarkable work with children and Diaspora families in the UK.
In this new episode, Ms Ariyo talks to our anchor on the series, Kris Ero about her campaign against FGM in the diaspora communities in the UK. ‘When people migrate, they don’t leave their cultures behind,’ she said in this interesting and revealing interview.
Enjoy.
In the last couple of months, through this podcast series we have focused on 'The Rights of Domestic Workers in Nigeria'. The reactions to the series have been very impressive and indeed inspiring. Clearly the issues raised in the various episodes were not only germaine, many people feel it was a major campaign that catered for and provided a platform for some of the most vulnerable members of the society to air their views and grievances at the very prevalent but often unspoken gross human rights violations of domestic workers. Many consider this extremely groundbreaking.
We thank our listeners, the various interviewees and experts for the different roles you played to make this possible, We look forward to the opportunity to take this further by way of mobilising domestic workers to enforce their human rights. But most especially, so that domestic work in Nigeria can attract dignity of labour, be treated with regards to national labour laws, become a vibrant part of workers' unions and the umbrella labour rights movement.
In general, for there to be general fair play in domestic work in Nigeria.
Thank you very much.
The disruptive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy is well known. What many people do not know is how it also drives human trafficking and worsens the state of people involved in domestic work. Many are caught up in a web of violence whereas they bear the brunt of the pressures of the harsh economy, lost jobs and general economic distress and associated pressures on their employers. Indeed at the 2021 General Assembly of the United Nations, the global body describes COVID-19 as ‘an accelerator of human trafficking’ with special focus on forced labour and the growth of online human trafficking.
In this episode, you will listen to the views of persons whose businesses and general welfare were negatively impacted by COVID-19. An expert, Dr. Kelechi Okezie also provides insights into how the pandemic renders families vulnerable to trafficking and associated negative outcomes.
Kindly listen and share.
For so many young Nigerians serving as domestic workers, their work is not just a survivor quest, it is modern day slavery, the sort of servitude that deprives people of a meaningful future. Many are deprived of life-enhancing education in the course of rendering these services.
On our latest episode is Ms Rose Fruitful Edeh who started working as a domestic help at age 6. Most of the people in whose homes she worked, some relatives of hers, either did not allow her go to school or allowed her a partial and inefficient form of education. This is in addition to the sexual molestation she suffered in the hands of the male figures in some of the homes—a pattern too common for many like her. Though a determined young woman, the scars of the past and especially the educational deprivation, still trail her, sadly.
We also hear from an educationist, Deaconess Uzoechi Oluwaluyi and a women and children’s rights activist, Mrs. Bose Ironsi sharing their thoughts on this injustice namely the denial of educational rights to children, the lost childhood experienced by so many in our country in the course of years of domestic work. Our two guests also offered advice on the way forward.
You can also listen to this series in the three radio stations mentioned on the attached poster.
Do listen, you would be inspired by this episode.
In this episode, we are still highlighting the vital need for unionism among domestic workers in Nigeria, we talk to leading labour and human rights activists, Hauwa Mustapha of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Jaye Gaskiya, eminent activist, and Barrister Chima William, the Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.
What is the way forward? Is the establishment of unions focused mainly on the rights and welfare of domestic workers in Nigeria a possibility? Can they be better recognition for domestic workers by the Nigerian labour laws?
Do listen and let us have your feedback. Happy listening.
Over the last couple of weeks we have looked predominantly at the plights of domestic workers in Nigeria. We have proffered solutions ranging from reporting abuse cases to seeking counseling. One major gap detected is the fact that domestic workers in Nigeria, unlike many other countries, do not have unions and are usually not part of the mainstream labour movement.
In this new and exciting episodes, unionists and labour rights activists speak on the need for unionism as a way of empowering and recognising domestic workers labour rights and entitlement besides giving them a voice.
Do kindly listen.
As a follow-up to the last episode on 'When Domestic Workers Harm Their Employers', we are presenting the second part of that heated discourse. We speak to employers of domestic workers who have had ugly experiences as well as a family therapist and sexuality expert, Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode.
Our conclusion is the need for humane treatment of each other, either as domestic workers or as employers, and the imperative for the law to be brought to bear on every case.
This series has focused so far on the multifaceted abuses of domestic workers ranging from sexual abuse to outright murder. This time we are turning the table slightly to ask 'are domestic workers angels?' We are throwing a searchlight on the harms done by domestic workers on their employers and their family members. We focus particularly on a major one that occurred several years ago in Lagos-- the kidnap of three children by a domestic worker. We hear the shrill cries of the kids' mother, and the voice of the kidnapper after she was apprehended by the police and the children rescued.
We then ask: do the laws apply to domestic workers when they violate the rights and safety of others in the course of their work? Of course.
Also, we hear a voice of moderation on how to treat domestic workers as a way, sometimes, to avert these negative occurrences.
You would love it!
In this episode, we speak with United Kingdom-based Ms Debbie Ariyo (OBE), an eminent anti-trafficking advocate and Chief Executive Officer of AFRUCA , a UK charity and the BME (that is black and minority ethnic communities) Anti-Slavery Network (BASNET).through deprivation and various forms of gross human rights abuses especially taking advantage of the 'omo-odo's usually vulnerable socioeconomic circumstances.
In this episode, we speak with United Kingdom-based Ms Debbie Ariyo (OBE), an eminent anti-trafficking advocate and Chief Executive Officer of AFRUCA: Safeguarding Children, a UK charity and the BME (that is Black and Minority Ethnic communities) Anti-Slavery Network (BASNET).
Ms Ariyo shares her insight into her perception of the tradition which she describes as modern day slavery. She also talks about her fight against the practice in Nigeria and in the diaspora community in the UK. She equally shares her view on how the practice can be eliminated here in Nigeria with the right governance approach.
Our latest episode looks at a sad reality -- the use of children as domestic workers in Nigeria. It is an ugly trend with poverty as the reinforcing factor despite the criminalization of the practice by all local and international laws on child's right and welfare.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are 250 million child workers in the developing world and with 15 million of them in Nigeria. At a staggering 43% of the total population of minors, it is the highest recorded rate of child labor in West Africa.
COVID-19 and associated economic pressures have made things.
How do we correct this anomaly so that children can retain their childhoods, be saved from domestic servitudes and associated deprivations which so gravely blight so many futures?
Kindly listen to our analysis and array of expert views on this important issue.
In the second episode of the series on the sexual abuse of domestic workers in Nigeria, we feature a number of robust expert opinions on the issue. It is clear that from the analysis and survivors’ narratives that this is an unspoken epidemic in the country deserving of serious attention by relevant stakeholders.
The physical and psychosocial tolls on the impacted domestic workers can only be imagined. It is even worse that most are young, vulnerable, helpless, and mostly with very little education thus reaching out to the right redress channels or even the basic act of speaking out may be an issue.
Is there a way out? How long should this go on? The experts make various suggestions reporting to relevant bodies. We also give out contact information to agencies that would be of help.
Thanks in advance for listening.
In the second episode of our series, we look at the rampant but often unspoken trend of the sexual abuse of domestic workers. We hear also from a survivor, Ms Yinka Kenny, a broadcast journalist and women and children’s rights activist as she narrates the traumatic one-year period in which, as a teenager, she was allegedly subjected to a series of sexual assault by a Lagos-based clergy while working as a domestic help in his home. Listeners may find some aspects of the narrative aspect somehow graphic.
We also hear from Barrister Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, coordinator of the frontline Lagos State agency, the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) as well as an Edo State-based gender rights activist, Ms Ronke Ojeikere.
How can victims get help? What steps should they take, and what must government and relevant stakeholders doing to stem this ugly tide?
This is the first of a two-part episode on the burning issue.
Thanks for listening!
Hi there! We are excited to bring your way another important and compelling series—the plight of domestic workers in Nigeria! Yes, ‘House helps are indeed Humans’!
The abuse of domestic helps in Nigeria has been a long, tortuous and sometimes fatal reality, a silent epidemic, to put it mildly. How can this be stopped? How can they get better wages, better treatment?
This first episode puts in contexts many of the huddles on their way—the lack of a formal organizing or unions that fight for their rights and enforces them, or ensure that they are treated with dignity and fare better. Note that countries like Kenya and South Africa have very vibrant domestic workers’ unions.
In this episode, you will listen to the words of a relative who lost a loved one in the course of domestic work—a ‘suicide’ believed to be faked by the alleged culprits as well as expert opinions. Also, where to get help where necessary for those caught in these cycles of multifaceted abuse.
Stay tuned as we seek ways out of the menace and ensure that domestic workers are not underaged, are no longer abused, are better organized, empowered and are accorded their deserved respect.
Happy listening!
COVID-19 came along with a bagful of complications on all levels. One of them is a major spike in teenage pregnancies. A recent research by the International Rescue Committee, says as many as 152,000 Kenyan teenage girls became pregnant during the lockdown period, a 40 percent increase in the monthly average. Though there is no official research finding yet on the subject in Nigeria, the increase in teenage pregnancies as a direct result of the COVID-19-related lockdown and associated school closures is obvious, especially in rural areas of the country. And the sexual violence factor is not to be ruled out.
This episode, as usual, features the voices and perspectives of children and young persons on the topic, as both presenters and interviewees, on the matter, joined by a few adults.
What can government do to stem the tide? What are the roles of the parents? How can girls stay safe? These and more are in this episode that draws the curtain on our six-episode program on ‘Children and COVID-19’ aka ‘the Undiluted Voices of Children’ featuring children’s views on the global pandemic and presented by themselves.
Happy listening and please stay tuned for more spicy series on this platform.
Our new episode focuses on the challenges that children and young persons are grappling with in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it is a tough time for everyone, they suffer disproportionately in terms of access to learning platforms, discrimination by health authorities, even lack of basic health facilities and care in addition to dwindling family resources due to curret economic downturns.
In this emotional episode, listen to a parent of a child with special needs grapple with COVID-19-aggravated difficulties, a person living with disabilities speak about her plight as a visually challenged person and a doctor analyses the difficulties.
And what is the place of the authorities? How more should our government act to make this period bearable for children needing special care and their families? For a country lacking in basic welfare programmes, the plight of the impacted children/young persons and families in Nigeria can only be imagined.
The government also received a piece of advice here.
Do listen in, and thanks.
In a trend which has spanned decades, the Lagos State Government routinely resorts to forced eviction of the urban poor. These harsh and illegal treatment of the urban poor impacts negatively on children and young people and most times alters their educational and multifacted dreams. The distabilising impacts is usually huge but mostly uninterrogated.
The December 31, 2020 demolition of Monkey Village, an informal settlement in Lagos, by the Lagos State Government and its agents (leading to the displacement of more than 400 persons), is very much reminiscent of a series vicious attack in the Lagos urban poor besides various discrimination and criminalisation policies and actions. This is even more curious seeing the forced eviction was not only without the mandatory prior notice but at a time of a major national economic recession and a global pandemic. The harm by this singular action can only be imagined.
In their own voices, young persons narrate their experiences and air their views on the development. We also hear from experts on the ilegality of the action, the effects on children among other thoughts. This episode is also typically brought to you by a young person.
It is hoped that the authorities will do the needful and right this wrong as soon as possible.
This episode focuses on 'Violence Against Children' to mark the end of the #16DaysOfActivismAgainstGenderBasedViolence and in celebration of the global #HumanRightsDay (December 10, 2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures, economic depression and general instability has given rise to a new wave of violence against women and children in what experts have described as 'a pandemic withing a pandemic.' Children across the world face various forms of violence including sexual violence, domestic violence, physical abuse among other abuse of vulnerable children by mostly adult persons.
The episode, like others in the series, feature children's voices either as victims and at least a child activist, and recommends ways out of the malaise.
You would love it, but most of us, you would be inspired to work towards the protection of children in your corner of the world.
'According to UNICEF, a total of 188 countries have imposed countrywide school closures, affecting more than 1.6 billion children and youth, forcing more than two-thirds of countries to introduce national distance learning platforms, but among low-income countries the share is only 30 percent... Before this crisis, almost one third of the world’s young people were already digitally excluded...'
Scary statistics there.
This edition highlights, in figures and direct words of children and young people from across Nigeria, the distruptions caused to academic lives by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This podcast series comes from the stable of the Centre for Children's Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE), Nigeria's non-governmental organisation (NGO) working on the rights and development of children, young persons and their families.
Happy listening.
Children may not be the face of the pandemic yet they suffer greatly for the viral woe that has befallen our world. From the impacts of worsening family poverties, increased rates of child abuse to loss of school time, children worldwide have continued to feel the pang of the corona virus.
The six-episode series sponsored by the Fund for Global Human Rights, CEE-HOPE, Nigeria's child's right and development non-governmental organisation, brings you the undiluted voices of children from across the country. It is an opportunity for children' and young person's views on a variety of developments, and experiences to be aired, articulated and included in the conversations around COVID-19.
The COVID-19 and The Virus of Domestic Violence Against Women is a podcast series of six episodes, and is made possible by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
Episode 6 concludes our series; we ask two institutional experts how they have been responding to sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria, particularly the issues highlighted throughout this podcast.
The most common problem experienced by survivors and current victims was rape, particularly spousal abuse, as well as domestic worker abuse.
We therefore spoke to Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, Coordinator of the Lagos state Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team, and Tolu Odugbesan, Head of the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Unit of Nigeria's National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.
CREDITS
- Host and Interviews – Betty Abah
- Research, scripting and Production – Ruona Meyer
- Executive Producer - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, West Africa
Episode 5 covers the use of social media in reporting domestic violence how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected rates of usage by Nigerians seeking help. More than half of the world’s total population (almost four billion people) currently uses social media. Nigeria has about 27 million active social media users, and 99% of these people access social media through their phones.
You’ll hear from advocates who use social media in their work, on the trends, triumphs and pitfalls as Nigerians increasingly use social media to report and react to domestic violence and abuse in general.
The COVID-19 and The Virus of Domestic Violence Against Women is a podcast series made possible by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
CREDITS
- Host and Interviews – Betty Abah
- Research, scripting and Production – Ruona Meyer
- Executive Producer - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Episode 4 commemorates the UN International Widows Day, with a special focus on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Nigeria’s widows.
The Global Fund for Widows has called COVID-19 “a widow-making machine,” as scientific evidence shows that more men than women are dying of the virus. Of about 258 million widows worldwide, 3.5 million are said to be Nigerian.
Two young widows share their experiences and current reality, while advocates working across Nigeria reveal the unique challenges COVID-19 has brought for widows, and the strategies they have adopted to assist these women.
The COVID-19 and The Virus of Domestic Violence Against Women is a podcast series made possible by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
CREDITS
· Executive Producer - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
· Host – Betty Abah
· Research, scripting and Production – Ruona Meyer
· Interviews by Betty Abah and Ruona Meyer
Episode 3 covers Domestic worker abuse in Nigeria, an ongoing threat to the lives and mental health of young women.
There are at least 67 million adult domestic workers worldwide, and the International Labour Organisation adds that 80% of these workers are women. In Nigeria, most domestic workers are women and underage children, who risk abuse to earn a living.
Speaking to survivors, and the family member of a housemaid who died in the home of her employers, host Betty Abah unearths the family, social and economic ties that bind some Nigerians to a life of torture and modern-day slavery.
*Please note that some listeners may find portions of this podcast triggering, and we advise you proceed at your discretion.
The COVID-19 and The Virus of Domestic Violence Against Women is a podcast series made possible by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
CREDITS
- Host and Interviews – Betty Abah
- Scripting, Additional interview and Production – Ruona Meyer
- Executive Producer - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
Episode 2 takes on the subject of spousal rape, which occurs when a spouse forces the other to take part in sexual acts without the other’s consent. Unfortunately, under Nigerian law, spousal rape is not recognised.
You’ll hear the stories of two Nigerian women, who are survivors of spousal rape, as well as from experts who foresee higher rates of divorce, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- *Please note that some listeners may find portions of this podcast triggering, and we advise you proceed at your discretion.
The COVID-19 and The Virus of Domestic Violence Against Women is a podcast series made possible by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
CREDITS
- Host and Interviews – Betty Abah
- Research, scripting and Production – Ruona Meyer
- Executive Producer - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
The UN estimates that 28 per cent of Nigerian women aged 25-29 have experienced some form of physical violence since age 15, while 15 per cent of women experienced physical violence within 12 months, and 25 per cent of married women or those living with their spouses have experienced violence. The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has seen a marked increase in incidences of domestic violence in Nigeria.
The COVID-19 and The Virus of Domestic Violence Against Women is a podcast series of six episodes, and is made possible by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
Episode 1 covers Domestic abuse, also known as "domestic violence" or "intimate partner violence.”
Speaking to experts and relying on recent data from the United Nations, host Betty Abah examines the governmental and socio-cultural reasons for a spike in cases of domestic abuse during the lockdown period, and proffers practical solutions for victims.
CREDITS
- Host and Interviews – Betty Abah
- Research, scripting and Production – Ruona Meyer
- Executive Producer - Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, West Africa