One Billion Rising Coordinator for Nigeria, OMODELE IBITOYE EJEH, is an activist with about 18 years of counseling experience and a counseling teacher. She is the founder of Vision for Sanity, a youth based initiative established in the year 2003, on community development, environment, health, and poverty.
Omodele is the Founder of Initiative to Resist Institutional Slavery and Exploitation (IRISE), an activist organization that focuses on women’s sexual rights and reproductive health. Through collaborations with local governments, faith based organisations, grassroot organisations, international organisations, and women leaders, Omodele has been actively working with women girls, and communities against gender based violence. In her work, Omodele also focuses on the effect of the climate crises on women and girls. She is currently working on a project called “Listening To End Abortion Stigma.”
The Novel COVID-19 outbreak has changed the world and our approach to work .To contain the spread of COVID-19, it is important to practice public health recommended physical distancing. Our work centred on listening, storytelling and sensitization continue through virtual conferencing, peer counseling/peer educators online trainings to bridge the gap between us and persons affected by stigma who need to be listened to but are restricted by travel ban, physical distancing and lock down in this period of COVID-19 pandemic. We have also been active in the reporting of cases of Gender Based Violence as we witness rising cases of Sexual assaults on children and women by close family relatives and guardians. Our work is also intended to help reduce the rate of mortality due to stigmatization and discrimination around abortion during Covid-19,. As we see the world recording a high rate of gender based and sexual violence this period, women and girls need safe spaces to talk, be listened to, for the purposes of healing and the ability to make informed decisions not directed by fear of stigma and discriminations on their rights to bodily autonomy which includes their sexual rights and reproductive health and rights.