Some ‘Female Champions’ under the Gender Empowerment Through Film and Dialogue Project (Get FaD) have premiered four short films as part of advocacies to eliminate Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

The films, ‘Invisible Wounds’ ‘Unseen’,  ‘Shattered Dream’ and ‘Constrained’, which premiered recently in Abuja, talked about the harmful practices, affecting women and children in Nigeria.

The Get FaD project is being implemented by an NGO, Participatory Communication Through Gender Development Initiative (PAGED) in collaboration with the African Women Development Fund (AWDF).

The Programme Director, Ummi Bukar, said the films would be used for sensitization and advocacy purposes across the country on GBV among a variety of audiences.

She explained that as part of the project, 12 young women, who had never made films before were trained on gender, GBV, and filmmaking to produce four short documentaries in their communities.

“These ladies went into their communities and decided to work on different gender issues in their communities.

“Their aim is to showcase to the world, for people to talk about it. These ladies have visited communities for a certain dialogue on gender-based violence.

” To ensure that stories coming from the communities about GBV are by the people who live in the communities.

“They also share within the communities, dialogue within the communities, and the possible solutions that are also brought out from within the communities.

“We want the government sector, media, and relevant authorities to see what these young ladies have achieved at this short period of time,” she said.

Bukar said the aim was to influence people in communities to advocate for the Violence Against Person’s Prohibition Act (VAPP Act) within their communities, especially as so many states in Nigeria are yet to domesticate it.

She said what they hoped to do was to bring about their issues of GBV in different communities.

Bukar said community members could understand how much of a problem it was and why they needed to advocate for VAPP Act to be implemented in all states.

Ms. Aisha Malumfashi, one of the female Champion, who directed a short documentary, “Invisible Wounds” said the focus on emotional abuse in Gombe state, was to highlight the trauma and psychological effects some women go through in the hands of their spouses.

She said the film discussed the effects of lack of education, which exposed women to exploitation and inhuman treatment in society.

Also, Priscilla Victor and Neemah Musa, who directed,” Unseen” discussed harmful traditional practices affecting women, particularly early and forced marriage among Fulani communities and indigenes of Plateau state.

Other short film documentaries premiered included; Helen Gala – ‘Shattered Dream’ and Oluwatobi Ahmed – ‘Constrained”.