Funding is what we need from government for us to perform well -Patricia Sukore

.Says: ‘We provide free services for those not financially buoyant’

Mrs. Patricia Sukore is the founder of Patricia Sukore Foundation for Women and children, a non-governmental organization (NGO) advocating against sexual and gender-based violence, among others. She talks about the organization and the impact it has made so far in this chat with ISAAC NGUMAH. Read on:

How long have you been running your organization?

Since 2003 but it was registered in 2015. Not only do we do advocacy, we also upskill the women for a sustainable future and we also offer free services for women that have undergone domestic violence. There are many other services that we give to women and children in our organization.

What are your impacts so far?

The impact has been really impactful. Last year, we got a partnership with Women Health and Right projects that gets funding from the European Union. We were in partnership with them the whole of last year; it brought us more into the line limelight. People were able to know more about our working; people were able to know more about what we do; we have been having so many people that we don’t know. We offer free legal services for women that have suffered sexual or domestic violence; we got to know through the partnership that we got through this last year.

How do you defend the defenceless?

We defend the defenceless by giving them free legal services. Majority of them that have contacted our organization don’t really have money; they don’t have financial backing; so, we have a provision for that in our organization; we provide free services for those people that are not financially buoyant.

Who are your sponsors?

Our sponsors generally are individuals. For last year that we are in partnership with Women Health and Right Project, they were more like our sponsor because sometimes when we don’t have the funding, we tell them and they make the funding available even in Lagos State that provides funds for women that have suffered domestic violence or that need money maybe take somebody to Court that has wronged them.

Can you tell us about grants and school awards?

That one has not been functional for now; we need funding.

What are the issues related to women and children that you do address?

Domestic violence like children; most of the cases we had about children may be taken from their homes in the villages to cities to come and help out with may be an aunties or mother sister or because of somebody that is richer they take the child to them to be a house help. We find out most of these children are not given the right education and most of them are treated badly. It is not even us that bring these cases, maybe their neighbours that find out that a child has been maltreated badly, is not going to school but hawking. So, those are the things that we handle and the women; men, to be honest, think the places of women are in the kitchens. We are giving awareness that they could be what they want to be; their places are not just in the kitchens, we find out that women are not taking their future into their own hands.  Most of the time, they suffer in the hands of men. So, we have provisions in our organization that we upskill women so that they don’t become dependent; they become independent, they get skills that will make them have sustainable future. These are some of the things that we do in our organization.

Can you tell us about your empowerment projects?

Our empowerment programmes are to upskill women after gaining some skills, our organization gets funding for them to start up a business or to start up a profession where they will make money from to help themselves. Among the empowerment programmes that we have are: Sewing, computer programming, and learning how to operate a computer. So, we also teach women on how to operate computer. There are some people that want to be in the fashion industry; so, we get them education in that aspect

How many projects have you executed through your NGO so far?

Since inception, we have executed so many, like we have executed some fashion designing. We also advocate against sexual and gender-based violence; sometimes we get people together to go into the communities to give an awareness about this sexual and gender-based violence; they could report such cases because so many women that are raped and being assaulted, they keep mute. Like I said, before this country is partially nation, most women don’t know they have a right to report these cases. At times, we go for community awareness; we also did that during our partnership with the Women Health and Right projects. We went out into the communities to give awareness of women and children right, that cases could be reported, violence, domestic violence, sex, and rape. So, we did sustainable programmess to develop skills for women.

How many communities and states have you been able to reach out to?

For now, Lagos is very large; we have not been able to exhaust Lagos; that is where we are for now. We are in Lagos State and for now, we have worked at Isolo, Osodi, Ago, Okota and Ikotun too which has a big local government area; we have not even exhausted Lagos.

What do you want government to do to support your NGO?

Well, basically funding because there are some times we get cases from women that have been abused maybe domestic violence. At the end of the day, they themselves don’t have the money to go to the Court. Most times, they don’t have money; that is why they keep mute and we are giving them awareness. We don’t have that money to take the offenders to Court but last year, the organization of Women Health and Right Projects, the projects got finished by the end of November last year, we are calling out to government to fund us. Funding is the challenge; funding is what we need from government.

Can you tell us about your awareness so far and how do you create it?

Aside using physical materials, we also have our website. We also utilize the expansive reach of social media platforms.

By going into the communities with pamphlets; we have several books that we give to women and children to educate them on their right. Women and children are suffering for gender-based violence; we create awareness for them on what they could do in such cases.

What are your testimonies through your NGO?

Well, testimonies abound.  Last year, we had partnership with other organizations. We had so many testimonies; there’s this particular woman, she told us that she had wanted to run away from her home and leave the children but because of the children she couldn’t, the husband was always telling her that he was going to kill her. She was not the one that contacted us, it was a woman that she went to visit her sister in that area where she lives reported the incident and her sister reported the case to us and her number was given to us. When we communicated, she told us that her husband beats her and she couldn’t leave because of the children. Her husband wanted to kill her and also brought a woman into the house. She is around we reported this issue to the Women Health and Right Projects, the woman has no money, the man was arrested, charged to Court and  he was saying that the woman was a witch.

What are your challenges?

Our challenge is funding; funding Is the topmost priority; it is our major challenges; we need funding

What is your passion drive?

Since what I’m doing is working, there is success in what I am doing; that is my drive. Since the women we are impacting are not where they were before, they have taken steps higher, women that started with us in 2015 and we found out now that they are now doing better in life, that is the passion, that is the drive

What is your focus?

Seeing women being what they ought to be and achieving their dreams

What are your experiences while running your NGO?

It has been the bitter-sweet experience. Bitter knowing that there are so many women out there that have not heard about our organization and there are so many women that are still suffering not knowing that they can still report these cases.  Sweet experience because the cases that have been successfully done; sweet because the women have been empowered independently. My experience has been bitter-sweet; the sweet is more, I am really happy to see women that have been empowered living their lives and able to impact others and tell them about us.

What inspired you to have started an NGO?

I have always have love for helping people and when I was a child, I experienced female gender mutilation. So, while I was growing up I just saw it, I say because it is like one is a living dead anybody that has experienced that female gender mutilation cannot live a normal life. I could say that was the first part of it that was what encouraged me to go into it. I am a lawyer; I graduated from the University of Ilorin, I went to Law School at Enugu. So, I could say because of the ill I saw in the society, the ill against women, the female gender mutilation that I see in the society was what mostly made me go into this. People look at it, the females are not to be relegated to the background; they are not to be given education but now I could say westernization brought education but so many people are not like that again but when you go to most rural areas, I have seen to some rural areas even in Lagos State here that they feel that the female child should not go to school or maybe primary school because of the ills we see in the society tells that I needed to do my quota to help the female gender in the society.

How do you manage two professions; being a lawyer and also running an NGO?

I will say that both of them are interwoven; without the knowledge I have in law I am not sure I will be able to function effectively as a social worker because there are some cases that they bring to us that need legal assistance. So, if I don’t have that background in law, I won’t be able to advise in the legal aspects of whatever cases that are brought to my table. So, we also involve other fields like health care. There are some women that are assaulted, victimized and undergone domestic violence that are brought to us that need some kind of health care; so, we have some other health care facilitators that are with us that are partnering with the organization. So, when we have such cases, we refer them to the people that we are partnering with.

For a better society