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Organization's Overall Mission and Objectives
IFENDU means ‘the light of life’ that comes from heightened awareness. Its mission is to educate women, men and youth to dismantle oppressive cultural and religious systems that undermine women’s full human status and to promote women’s full participation in all spheres of life on a basis of co-equality with men. Its vision is a new world in which men and women are valued equally and work together harmoniously as co-equal partners.
IFENDU addresses major issues in the interface of:
Gender, Religion and Culture;
Sexuality,
HIV/AIDS;
Human Trafficking as well as Environmental Issues/Care of the Earth.
Awareness-raising activities including i) Advocacy outreach to communities and organizations; ii) Training; and iii) Research, Documentation and Presentation Service try to accomplish the following:
1) To increase beneficiaries’ awareness of their social and cultural conditioning, and how they unwittingly perpetuate the same system which oppresses them, which they otherwise condemn
2) To motivate all to work for change in behaviors, policies, beliefs and attitudes, which undermine women’s dignity
3) To equip beneficiaries with the necessary skills and capacity to interpret cultural symbols and myths in ways that are more life-giving for women
4) To build up women’s capacity to assume a fuller participation in partnership with men in development; to collaborate with men on an equal footing, not in subservience
5) To increase beneficiaries’ systematic knowledge of core gender issues and how to reverse their unhealthy effects in people’s lives and consequently,
6) To promote genuine happy family life.
Focus group and Level of Engagement: Our focus group is principally women and youth. However, recognizing the need for ‘gender education’ for all, we also conduct programmes for men to empower them to play their own part in effecting systemic change in the social and cultural issues that affect women negatively in families and communities. Beneficiaries of this programme are: urban and rural women, men, and youth; including clergy/religious/ men and women leaders; and seminary/university professors. Although IFENDU operates at a national level, it enjoys an international partnership networking relationship with Holy Rosary Sisters in eight African countries through its executive director, who is their member.
Brief History of IFENDU: When the book, Overcoming women’s subordination, first came out from the press and started circulating in Enugu and environs, the author, Sister Rose Uchem, a Holy Rosary Sister, started receiving invitations from different groups: to share the product of her doctoral research; to speak on different subjects, ranging from women and environmental issues, to HIV and AIDS; also to attend NGO leadership forum. At this time also the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) came to Enugu for a consultative meeting on Gender, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS Prevention. Sr Rose received an invitation to participate. In the course of the UNIFEM campaign, she was appointed a team leader along with eleven others who were NGO leaders. These, and other experiences elsewhere on international mission, contributed to her ultimately founding the non-governmental organization, IFENDU, as a platform for her unfolding gender awareness project. IFENDU gained the status of a registered charity in 2004 (No. 16, 525) though its activities started in 2002.
IFENDU aims at contributing towards creating a world in which men and women are valued equally and operate as equal partners. It is a response to the call of the Holy Rosary Sisters’ General Chapter of 2001, to hold “a vision of mission which keeps in view root causes as well as symptoms of injustices … to do more by way of questioning … and changing unjust social structures, while continuing to respond to immediate needs” (MSHR Chapter Document: Together in Mission, 2001, p.12).
It is also inspired by the words in various church documents on social justice issues. The late Pope John Paul II in 1988 reinterpreted and corrected the ‘submission’ clause in Ephesians 5:21-33 – attributed to St Paul – that: “All the reasons given in favour of the subjection of woman to man in marriage should be understood as mutual subjection of [man and woman] to one another out of reverence to Christ” (1988, Mulieris Dignitatem, 24).
Not many people seem to know these developments; hence the urgency to spread the message to every corner of the country and the world. Thus, IFENDU came into existence out of the realization that formal education alone without corresponding changes in society’s attitude towards women is not sufficient to lift the cultural, social and economic burdens that women bear.
In the past, Holy Rosary Sisters, founded in 1924 by Bishop Joseph Shanahan, CSSp,, opened to Nigerian women the then exclusive world of formal education. Some of the prominent Nigerian women like Prof. Dora Akunyili, Mrs Patricia Aondoaka and others, who have graced the public service with their excellent performance and personal witness of integrity, are among the beneficiaries of the Holy Rosary educational system. This notwithstanding, oppressive cultural traditions persist where three-year-old ‘men’ are accorded more human dignity than thirty-year old women. This called for advancing the Holy Rosary education project to include gender advocacy for equal recognition of women’s full human identity.
Membership: Being a vision-driven NGO, the core membership of IFENDU is twelve; eight Holy Rosary Sisters and four others: two lay men and two lay women. Its wider membership is constituted by programme beneficiaries, some of whom are now working in other parts of Africa; collaborators from other networking partner organizations as well as colleagues in the Holy Rosary Sisters congregation; in different parts of Nigeria and other African countries. In addition, there is a network of associates (men and women) alumni of Holy Rosary institutions now in government ministries and para-statals. We also have among our collaborators top-ranking clergy/men and women who have direct access to the government at national and state levels. The main criterion for membership is the willingness and commitment to work for IFENDU’s core values and vision of gender equality in all its ramifications.
ACHIEVEMENTS: IFENDU has accomplished the following:
· Sexuality Education:516 youths, men and women trained in sexuality and gender awareness58 seminarians, 76 sisters and 34 clergy men trained
· HIV/AIDS preventive education and stigma elimination: 268 men, women and youth trained for HIV/AIDS stigma elimination
· Human Trafficking: 167 youths sensitized through seminar
· Environment/Care of the Earth: 250 clergy men, 150 sisters, and 1,700 secondary school students trained
· Gender, Religion and Culture:
279 women and men leaders and clergy trained in 11 gender awareness workshops organized with support from donors
39 public lectures and 14 national and international conference papers presented
2,000,000 men, women and youth sensitized towards gender inclusion and gender balance in a total of 17 communities and 18 organizations in: FCT Abuja, Enugu, Imo, Rivers, Ekiti, Edo, Kaduna, Plateau, Ogun, and Anambra States of Nigeria
-Published numerous journal articles and four books:
*The Youth and Human Trafficking
*Women and the Kolanut, 2006, Enugu: SNAAP.
*Gender Equality from a Christian Perspective, 2005, Enugu: SNAAP.
*Beyond Veiling: A Response to Women’s Experiences in Africa Enugu: SNAAP Press, 2002 and
*Overcoming women’s subordination. Enugu: SNAAP Press, 2001.
The public presentation of the book, Gender Equality from a Christian Perspective, in Abuja in 2005. It was attended and supported by: representatives from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Federal Ministry of Education, Directorate of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) among others. It was a strategic landmark in our work of awareness creation because of the wide media coverage on NTA.
A similar event took place in Enugu this year, April 2, 2008; for the book, Women and the Kolanut. The aim was to get people thinking and talking about such issues that many people do not want to talk about but which all the same call for change.
Advocacy strategies for the coming year
i) Organize a creative arts festival on specific gender themes:-to identify and mobilize a drama troupe to produce and distribute a video movie -to identify and enlist creative visual fine artists to advance the work of gender awareness creation
ii) Produce and distribute DVD on lectures and presentations on various gender themes
iii) Float two types of publications: an informative popular newsletter/magazine to capture not only news of activities of IFENDU but also articles on gender advocacy; and an academic journal to promote mainstreaming gender awareness and analysis into theological education; addressing seminaries and universities.
iv) Complete the construction of IFENDU website and initiate electronic newsletter and journalv) Hold a media round table discussion on specific gender issues All this will be in addition to lectures, publications, advocacy outreach to communities, conference paper presentations, small focus group discussions, training workshops and book presentation ceremonies.
Governance Structure: The main decision-making body is the board of trustees, comprising three women and two men, with women holding the post of chair and secretary, respectively. The executive director manages the day-to-day activities of IFENDU with the help staff members. An advisory committee together with a team of consultants assists in planning and evaluating programmes.
Financial and Administrative Capacity: IFENDU has received funding support from: Combined Services Third World Fund; MISSIO Munchen; MISSIO Aachen; Conrad Hilton Fund for Sisters; World council of Churches; Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiative in Africa; Global Fund for Women; and National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP); Miscean Cara (formerly Irish Missionary Resource Services). Other sources of income include proceeds from sale of books and occasional stipends for consultancy services from benefiting communities and organizations.
Structures and systems in place to manage the resources: IFENDU has a current account into which all project funds are paid. Receipts for all expenditures are collected and kept by the project manager. Interim and final accounts are prepared and sent to the respective funding agencies. An overall annual account is prepared, audited and submitted to the trustees and the leadership team of Holy Rosary Sisters by the project manager. The last financial audit was March, 2008 for the year ending December, 2007. The next audit is planned for May 2009.
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