5 awesome years of IWEI

Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative (IWEI) was launched 5 years ago, on the 10th December 2015 in Kano State. How time flies! What began as a dream, to empower women and children in our rural communities as a catalyst for growth, has translated into positive transformation in the lives of thousands of women, children, families and […]

Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative (IWEI) was launched 5 years ago, on the 10th December 2015 in Kano State. How time flies! What began as a dream, to empower women and children in our rural communities as a catalyst for growth, has translated into positive transformation in the lives of thousands of women, children, families and communities. Indeed, the family had always wanted to immortalise the visionary efforts of Malam Isa Wali, who had since the 1950’s, actively engaged the public on, amongst other things, ensuring respect for women’s rights, from an Islamic perspective.
Being conversant with the Sharia and the Arabic language, Malam Isa Wali caused quite a stir in conservative circles when he began to confront, through a series of published articles in the mid-50’s, those norms that had succeeded in confusing culture with religion, clarifying that despite general beliefs and perceptions, Islam actually protected women, safeguarded their rights and encouraged their active participation in public life.
Mallam Isa Wali passed on in 1967, and yet many of the negative practices and customs, masked as religious precepts, still prevail in today’s context, not to be questioned or tampered with, misconceived as ‘mandatory’ under the Sharia. From inception, therefore, the Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative focused on enhancing the lives and conditions of the female members in our rural communities, aiming at ensuring that they are able to overcome their sundry challenges relating to safety, health and economic viability for women and girls.
The challenges were endemic, diverse and intertwined. In many rural communities in Northern Nigeria, most of our women have not had the opportunity to go to school, and consequently, their children’s education is almost non-existent. It does not help that the schools do not exist, or function effectively, in many rural areas. Indeed, for the girl child, the ultimate ambition of her parents is for her to get married out very early.
As a result, many of our girls remain deprived of an education or skills to facilitate productivity. Being married off too early also means that she is immature and exposed to the unduly prevalent high rate of divorce. The general perception is that men have an unfettered right to divorce their wives (without recourse to arbitration, as mandated under the Sharia), thereby causing needless and unjustified disruptions within the family set up. Marriages conducted with men much older, along with co-wives and thrust into an unfamiliar environment, translates into girls having no self-esteem, communication or negotiation skills. The absence of networks, knowledge or recourse to critical information and substantial justice only compounds the circumstances of the little girl. Depression and exclusion are evident in too many homes, and domestic abuse rampant. So are infections and illnesses, without recourse to, or the know-how for, effective treatment.
Our communities are replete with malnourished women and children basically because the young mothers are themselves, physically not fully formed, so are unable to provide the essential nutrition for their growing foetuses. Bereft of the requisite knowledge on the importance of nutrition for their growing children, severe malnutrition, wasting and stunting continue to contribute to the frightening statistics linked to our future, where not just the physical, but also the mental and cognitive wellbeing of the children are at high risk.
Women and children die routinely at childbirth, while many adolescent mothers have ended up in VVF hospitals, abandoned by their husbands and families. The unduly high rate of divorce has resulted in dysfunction in families, whereby women are compelled to leave their children behind, not adequately catered for, and likely to be sent off into the almajiri system. Hawking for the girl (with it’s endemic dangers), commercial sex work (for the divorcee), substance abuse, unskilled, uneducated and unemployable youth, thuggery, even terrorism and a fragmented society, all ensue, the outcome of which can only be the sorry and vicious cycle of poverty that is evident in most of our rural communities.
Women and girls continue to face gender based violence, domestic violence and child marriage. IWEI has worked in the area of promoting access to justice since 2011, through human rights and civic education, training of community-based paralegals and rendering of paralegal services in Kano State. Trained paralegals have been responsible for amicably resolving over 400 cases so far, thereby assisting women and children to protect their rights and safeguard their dignity. IWEI has enabled women, girls and boys to demand for and receive compensation for the violation of rights. IWEI continues to assist survivors of abuse to participate in economic activities, address the trauma they have endured to be able to live a life of dignity.
Through the years, we have experienced several highs and lows, but it has undoubtedly been a most fulfilling, learning experience, for our target beneficiaries, as well as for us. Five years on, the results have been astonishing. It is certainly gratifying to witness the transformation in women who, hitherto so insecure, have garnered sufficient confidence to take decisions that impact positively on their lives and in the lives of their children. Indeed, their husbands are part of their success story, as they have become partners with IWEI in this effort, being encouraged by the positive changes they continue to witness in their homes, the food they eat, the health of their children, the confidence that their wives exude, the consequent improved relationships and the general stability in the wellbeing of their communities. It has definitely been an interesting and fulfilling journey, consisting of critical lessons, growth and progress. From one LGA as our pilot project, IWEI has gradually grown into seven other LGAs (and many more communities) in Kano State. While aiming to grow into many other States with similar challenges by sharing strategies (and lessons learnt), we remained indebted to our many development partners (such as MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Global Rights Nigeria, and the Canada High Commission), as well as the generosity of organisations and individual donors (too many to mention), who continue to contribute their time and money to support our activities in the field.
IWEI has an amazing 12 member Board, drawn from across the country, who continue to mentor and guide it’s activities at no financial cost. It’s remarkable people (especially our indefatigable Executive Secretary, Amina Hanga), incredibly generous volunteers, as well as the wise members of it’s Advisory Board, have been a blessing from the Almighty, without whose direction progress would never have been made in efforts to impact positively on the lives of our citizens. We remain thankful for the many mercies and bounties that have come our way in this journey. We, that have been lucky (through no doing of ours), undoubtedly owe our citizens the duty to enable them achieve their full potential. Too many remain at risk. There is work, yet, to be done! Plus, never enough blessings for the visionary, Mallam Isa Wali.
Maryam Uwais MFR is the Chairperson IWEI