As a civil society organisation advancing the rights of women and girls, Gender Mobile Initiative has emphasised the need to make institutions of learning safe for everyone to thrive, particularly women and girls. According to the Executive Director of the organisation, Omowumi Ogunrotimi, school-related sexual violence has assumed an epidemic proportion.
She noted that the vice was further enabled by the repressive culture of silence due to lack of comprehensive policies, dearth of institutional accountability and lack of survivor-centred reporting channels. While acknowledging the collaborative effort of organisations across board, Ogunrotimi reaffirmed her organisation’s commitment to support more institutions of learning across the country to strengthen their internal mechanisms to prevent and respond to sexual violence.
She added that a critical component of this effort is the wide adoption of the Campuspal mobile app for confidential reporting and mainstreaming preventative education through the institutionalisation of a sexual assault prevention and consent education module.