Safe Space Initiative Gives Hope to SGBV Victims

A non-governmental organisation, Safe Space Initiative, has given voice to victims of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) through Tehila, a support group therapy event for survivors.

Now in its 6th edition, this year’s version held with the theme, ‘The Power of Self Discovery – Losing Self to Find Self’.

Focused on supporting victims physically, mentally, socially and financially, the event played host to women who have experienced domestic violence, rape, incest and single parents.

A strictly women event, it held simultaneously in Lagos and Abuja while participants also joined online via zoom.
The facilitators took the women through tips to discovering self in spite of their negative experiences while working at healing and becoming better.

Founder of Safe Space Initiative, Osasu Edobor, who facilitated the group session in Abuja, encouraged the women to take on simple exercises such as journaling, staying present to avoid anxiety and learning to truly reduce the noise outside while they affirm and truly centre on themselves.

Practical sessions helped the women to identify new things about themselves they had not paid attention to. One of the facilitators, Dr. Gbonjubola Babalola Abiri, encouraged the women to learn to ask for help, saying they should never take for granted the place of community that holds, binds and strengthens in their struggles.


On her part, parenting coach, Sandra Oluwadare, shared tips with the women on being present. She stressed on the pivotal role of parenting as it relates to children of survivors who have also endured trauma.

The sessions ended with engagements across the three locations with fun activities for the women and information on reporting abuse through the herfessions mobile app.

The herfessions App, which is available on Playstore is an anonymous community of women encouraging peer support and a compendium of service providers in different states of the federation.

​The session ended with the participants sharing feedback on programme highlights and anticipation towards the next session. Partner organisations like WEVVO Nigeria, Dorothy Njemanze Foundation (DNF) and Rubies Ink made the sixth edition of the Tehila a massive success.

Source: Guardian