Ayodeji Osowobi Wants Nigerians To Come Together And Stand To End Rape

Sexual and gender-based violence against women is increasingly being reported and documented all over the world, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing down these crimes.

Last year, there were only 150 reported cases of sexual and physical abuse in Lagos state, so given how rampant rape is, one can only imagine how many more went unreported. Earlier this year, there was also the horrific incident where secondary school boys attempted to rape their female classmates in broad daylight.

In a survey carried out by Punch Nigeria, it was revealed that 100% of sexually harassed victims are female students. 67% of them raised no alarm at all, while the other 33% made reports to their friends, family and course leaders – rarely amounting to an arrest.

This is not shocking, given the rife culture of victim blaming in Nigeria, and the hesitance to hold men accountable for their wrongdoings. These are all prime examples for why we need organisations such as Stand To End Rape, a youth-led non-profit organisation who advocate against sexual violence, provide prevention mechanisms and support rape survivors with psychosocial services.

The very brave founder of this organisation, Ayodeji Osowobi is a rape survivor whose experience drove her to start up this platform. Speaking to Guardian Woman, she said:

“There is nothing more important to me than being a reason someone can make lemonade from the lemon that has been thrown at them.

I believe I was branded to motivate other rape survivors to be limitless. I created no space for the rape experience to brand my existence and reality.”

Stand To End Rape is on a mission to end all forms of rape, and rape culture. It is very important (especially in a patriarchal society like ours) to educate people on the factors that contribute to rape culture in order to avoid and eventually eradicate it entirely.

Rape should be a thing of the past, rather than something we hear on the news everyday, and platforms like Stand To End Rape are the beginning of the means to this end. So far, they have worked directly with over 60 survivors, empowered about 20% of them, with some still awaiting justice.