This episode of our podcast show on 'End the Cutting Culture', features leading sexuality and women and children's rights advocate, Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode.  Dr. Olufemi-Kayode who is the founder of the non-governmental group, Media Concern for Women and Children (MEDIACON), speaks compellingly on the physical, psychological and social impacts of the harmful traditional practice. She also proffers solutions and advises stakeholders on the way forward.

Besides being an advocate, wait for it, Dr. Princess as she is also a survuvor of FGM. A known vocal activist, she also shares her experience here.

Listen and be inspired!

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is one of the worst forms of violence perpetuated against women and girls in several parts of the world especially in Africa. It entails the forceful and brutal destruction of their sexuality in the name of culture. 

Yet, it is someone who has undergone FGM that truly know where the shoe pinches. In the latest edition of our podcast show on FGM, 'Cut the Cutting Culture,' we interviewed Ms Yinka Kenny, notable Nigerian On-Air Personality and a women and girl’s rights advocate.

In this frank talk, she narrates how she discovered she had been circumcised at a younger age. She also opens up on the effects on her sexuality and other areas and advises against the dehumanizing culture.

Do listen and share.

In honour of the kick-off of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we are launching our new series which highlights the injustices of the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) practice in Nigeria.

To headline this series and this day is the distinguished Debbie Ariyo, OBE, Nigerian-born, United Kingdom-based child’s rights activist and anti-trafficking champion. Ms Ariyo is the founder of AFRUCA Child Safeguarding-UK, a nonprofit which works on child safeguarding and child trafficking issues in African diaspora communities in the UK and provides services to help support children and families as well as rehabilitate victims. She also established the Black and Minority Ethnic, BME Anti-Slavery Network (BASNET) to help promote racial equity, diversity and inclusion in the UK anti-trafficking sector. Highly awarded and respected for her work, Ms Ariyo was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England in 2011 for her remarkable work with children and Diaspora families in the UK.

In this new episode, Ms Ariyo talks to our anchor on the series, Kris Ero about her campaign against FGM in the diaspora communities in the UK. ‘When people migrate, they don’t leave their cultures behind,’ she said in this interesting and revealing interview.

Enjoy.

In the last couple of months, through this podcast series we have focused on 'The Rights of Domestic Workers in Nigeria'. The reactions to the series have been very impressive and indeed inspiring. Clearly the issues raised in the various episodes were not only germaine, many people feel it was a major campaign that catered for and provided a platform for some of the most vulnerable members of the society to air their views and grievances at the very prevalent but often unspoken gross human rights violations of domestic workers. Many consider this extremely groundbreaking.

We thank our listeners, the various interviewees and experts for the different roles you played to make this possible, We look forward to the opportunity to take this further by way of mobilising domestic workers to enforce their human rights. But most especially, so that domestic work in Nigeria can attract dignity of labour, be treated with regards to national labour laws, become a vibrant part of workers' unions and the umbrella labour rights movement.

In general, for there to be general fair play in domestic work in Nigeria.

Thank you very much.

The disruptive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy is well known. What many people do not know is how it also drives human trafficking and worsens the state of people involved in domestic work. Many are caught up in a web of violence whereas they bear the brunt of the pressures of the harsh economy, lost jobs and general economic distress and associated pressures on their employers. Indeed at the 2021 General Assembly of the United Nations, the global body describes COVID-19 as ‘an accelerator of human trafficking’ with special focus on forced labour and the growth of online human trafficking.

In this episode, you will listen to the views of persons whose businesses and general welfare were negatively impacted by COVID-19. An expert, Dr. Kelechi Okezie also provides insights into how the pandemic renders families vulnerable to trafficking and associated negative outcomes.

Kindly listen and share.

For so many young Nigerians serving as domestic workers, their work is not just a survivor quest, it is modern day slavery, the sort of servitude that deprives people of a meaningful future. Many are deprived of life-enhancing education in the course of rendering these services.

On our latest episode is Ms Rose Fruitful Edeh who started working as a domestic help at age 6. Most of the people in whose homes she worked, some relatives of hers, either did not allow her go to school or allowed her a partial and inefficient form of education. This is in addition to the sexual molestation she suffered in the hands of the male figures in some of the homes—a pattern too common for many like her. Though a determined young woman, the scars of the past and especially the educational deprivation, still trail her, sadly. 

We also hear from an educationist, Deaconess Uzoechi Oluwaluyi and a women and children’s rights activist, Mrs. Bose Ironsi sharing their thoughts on this injustice namely the denial of educational rights to children, the lost childhood experienced by so many in our country in the course of years of domestic work. Our two guests also offered advice on the way forward.

You can also listen to this series in the three radio stations mentioned on the attached poster.

Do listen, you would be inspired by this episode.

In this episode, we are still highlighting the vital need for unionism among domestic workers in Nigeria, we talk to leading labour and human rights activists, Hauwa Mustapha of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Jaye Gaskiya, eminent activist, and Barrister Chima William, the Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

What is the way forward? Is the establishment of unions focused mainly on the rights and welfare of domestic workers in Nigeria a possibility? Can they be better recognition for domestic workers by the Nigerian labour laws?

Do listen and let us have your feedback. Happy listening.

Over the last couple of weeks we have looked predominantly at the plights of domestic workers in Nigeria. We have proffered solutions ranging from reporting abuse cases to seeking counseling. One major gap detected is the fact that domestic workers in Nigeria, unlike many other countries, do not have unions and are usually not part of the mainstream labour movement.

In this new and exciting episodes, unionists and labour rights activists speak on the need for unionism as a way of empowering and recognising domestic workers labour rights and entitlement besides giving them a voice.

Do kindly listen.

As a follow-up to the last episode on 'When Domestic Workers Harm Their Employers', we are presenting the second part of that heated discourse. We speak to employers of domestic workers who have had ugly experiences as well as a family therapist and sexuality expert, Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode.

Our conclusion is the need for humane treatment of each other, either as domestic workers or as employers, and the imperative for the law to be brought to bear on every case.

This series has focused so far on the multifaceted abuses of domestic workers ranging from sexual abuse to outright murder. This time we are turning the table slightly to ask 'are domestic workers angels?' We are throwing a searchlight on the harms done by domestic workers on their employers and their family members. We focus particularly on a major one that occurred several years ago in Lagos-- the kidnap of three children by a domestic worker. We hear the shrill cries of the kids' mother, and the voice of the kidnapper after she was apprehended by the police and the children rescued. 

We then ask: do the laws apply to domestic workers when they violate the rights and safety of others in the course of their work? Of course. 

Also, we hear a voice of moderation on how to treat domestic workers as a way, sometimes, to avert these negative occurrences.

You would love it!