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From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The Women in Mining Nigeria (WIMIN), appealed for strategic right to end gender and child abuse in the mining sector.
The president of WIMIN, Engr. Janet Adeyemi, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, at the national summit, with the themed, ‘Safeguarding the Rights of Women and Children in the Solid Mineral Sector’, organised by the mining women.
She stressed that the women in mining in Nigeria will stop at nothing to achieve the eradication of gender abuse in Nigeria mining sector.
Adeyemi said: “We will ensure that the mining space in Nigeria is open and safe for all women, both professionals and artisans who have found their passion in mining.
“Women in mining in Nigeria extended our advocacy to Bauchi State. We visited key actors in the solid minerals sector and organized a State Policy Dialogue, bringing together stakeholders to focus on strategic ways to end gender and child abuse in the sector.
“In the presence of female miners in Bauchi, all state actors and stakeholders in the solid minerals sector demonstrated their unwavering commitment to ending all forms of abuse and strengthening their relationship with female miners.
“We had organized the female miners and inaugurated a fully functional State Chapter of Women in Mining in Bauchi State, which will champion the realization of our goals. This was a remarkable success for us in Bauchi State.”
She noted that they have engaged the Kogi State ministry of women affairs, on the protection and enforcement of children’s rights to integral as their mandate.
Adeyemi, lamented that limited resources hinder their ability to effectively investigate cases of child labor and abuse in mining sites across the state. “At the state level, Women In Mining has engaged various stakeholders through advocacy and policy dialogues. Nevertheless, we intend to escalate the issues of women’s and children’s rights violations in Kogi State to the national level.
The Program manager, WIMIN, Deloraine Dennis, on her part called for protection of women’s and children in the mining sector.
She noted that the aimed of the summit is to more create access to justice and the rights for women in mining in Nigeria
Dennis also lamented that women are often excluded from decision-making processes and leadership positions in the mining sector, including involvement and representation.
