My internet access success story

In my First year in the University in 2005, spurred by the scourge of rape and domestic violence in my community, I started an initiative on awareness and sensitization on violence against women, and counselling sessions during my free time for women and Children who have been abused. I called it- Initiative for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children (IEVAWC), and I began to attract support by having a one on one discussion with my peers on the subject matter, from there I developed a questionnaire and I distributed to students of various departments/ Faculties on campus, from their responses I was able to get volunteers who joined me in the campaign. We then started to share ideas together, and making small financial contributions, we began to find methods/ strategies in which to sustain the Initiative so as completely eliminate the ugly menace called gender violence in our schools and transcend into the community, thereby contributing our quota towards nation building. And in 2008 we were able to get it registered with the government so that we can operate legally in our communities. So for about seven years now I have been involved in awareness, sensitization and counseling program for women and Children. Initiative for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children (IEVAWC), is duly registered with the CAC-Federal Republic of Nigeria, CAC/ IT/ NO. 28734 as a non-profit, non-governmental organization that is committed to preventing, eliminating, and providing lasting solutions to gender violence such as wife-battering, rape and child sexual abuse in the society, so as to create an enabling environment towards nation building. The Motivation is still traceable back to my childhood years, my love for the less-privileged, battered women, raped victims, molested children, and my burning desire to mitigate their sufferings. My team and I were doing all the awareness seminars by going from schools to schools and communities to communities, market places, teaching women and children and the men too, the effects of gender violence on them and the society at large. We were recording successes and were happy that at least somehow, we were transforming our community in our little way that we can. Even though we recorded some success, it was quite stressful for us having to find time to come together to plan our programs and how to go about it. We had no idea how to work online because when it comes to the internet and social engagement, we felt communicating with friends and family through e-mail was all. It was in my quest to find something more, something more engaging to do online and I stumble across world pulse. When I came across world pulse I then learnt about online community, I was so excited because I found a platform where I could share my passion and link with others whom we share same vision and I also started to learn about other women’s work. Being in world pulse felt like being in a family, networking and connecting with different women from across the world. Honestly, my joining world pulse brought a tremendous transformation in my NGO. Engaging in world pulse have greatly helped shaped my ideas, gave me great insights. Today, most of our enlightenment campaigns, meetings, announcements, invitation to events and discussions are being done online, in our Facebook fan page we have over 400 likes already in less than a year of coming online, and we receive messages from different people all over the world contributing to our work and encouraging us and some seeking to partner with us. Working online helped lessen the stress of having to worry about how to reach out to the general populace; we in IEVAWC are so excited about the world pulse WWW campaign because we know that the benefits of online participation cannot be over emphasized, especially to and for women.