Sexual and physical violence is an under reported crime in Nigeria, with many persons unaware of the consequences of such abuse.

iMarch4Children is an initiative aimed at raising awareness on violence against children and breaking the culture of silence involved in such acts.

The iMarch4children campaign is convened by Oluwadamilola Apotieri-Abdulai, the Executive Director of Playback Nigeria and Nigeria’s first Applied Dramatist.

In this interview, Apotieri-Abdulai speaks to YNaija on the aims and achievement of the initiative.

What birthed the iMarch4Children initiative?

Playback Nigeria since inception has been up and active on children’s issues. In 2012, we created a theatre piece called ‘The Invisible’ to raise social consciousness on plight street children.

In 2013, our play ‘Accursed’ focused on the plight of children affected and infected with HIV. Our works are guided by the UN focus on children and happenings. In September 2015, President Buhari launched the Violence Against Children Survey (VACS) and declared the Year of Action to End Violence Against Children and then called on all stakeholders, NGOs, CSOs, Cultural and Religious leaders and all active citizens to join hands to end VAC in Nigeria.

It was this call made by the President that Playback Nigeria responded to. We have been involved in the VAC project since inception. We did an embodied performance at the launch of the survey in Abuja and it was impactful as our technique of using embodied performance becomes more engaging and has the ability to make the ‘invisible visible’.

Sometimes the issue of violence are hidden. People don’t talk about the impact of violence on the society. When you commit an act of violence and abuse against children, the impact stays for another 100 years. When children experience violence, the memory lingers on and have a negative impact on their adult-life.

This is what we wanted the society to know and nothing brings it to the fore more than arts. Arts has the ability of representing life and issues in a way that it changes your perception and how you do things.

What exactly is the iMarch4Children campaign hoping to achieve?

iMarch4Children is a platform to engage the general public in taking actions to End Violence Against Children in Nigeria. It has both online and offline presence. What came up as a conversation to raise social consciousness on the impact of VAC has received a lot of support on the national level. Our aim is to use embodied march to start dialogue around the impact of VAC and also engage the society in creating interventions to end VAC.

Online, we have discussions on several issues relating to VAC while offline, we walk the talk and get to places where internet won’t reach and use our body and art.

During our 26 days of active engagement on social media (May 1-26), we engaged stakeholders and survivors of VAC to share their experience and thoughts.

We recently launched a weekly therapy session on Twitter called #BreakTheSilence. This initiative was launched on the 1st of June as a follow-up to the May 27th March. We want to create a platform for hearing telling.

We understand that people who experience VAC and those who have survived VAC have an emotional luggage they carry and it is our responsibility at Playback Nigeria to create a safe space and support mechanism for them and at the same time, have people who are secretly living in pain know that they are not alone and can get support too.

The #BreakTheSilence series would be on Twitter every Wednesday from 7pm through @iMarch4Children. Some of our clients would prefer to remain anonymous so we allow them use our Twitter handle to share their experience while some prefer to face it and #StartTalking.

We also provide a pre and post #BreakTheSilence support for them. We have an ongoing discussion with the Nigerian Psychological Association so that we can have a closed door session who those who still feel disturbed. It’s really a traumatic experience when people break the silence but it’s therapeutic to talk.

 

How is the initiative using art to achieve your goals?

Our work is centered around arts. We use arts for social engagement and psycho-social support. We are a member of the International Playback Theatre Network which is a therapeutic theatre form, Drama for Life Africa Network and also the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Reference Group. We presently consult for a couple of UN organisations because of the impact of our skill. We engage with IDPs and other communities creating safe spaces for debriefing and support.

We also create art pieces like theatre performances, embodied performances and installations around social issues. We have an ongoing project in taking VAC related performances to communities and schools across the country. We are the only Playback Theatre company in the whole of West Africa and the only Applied Drama company in Nigeria.

Could you explain the concept of embodied silent performance?

Embodied performance is an art form that uses the body of a performer (in some cases participants) to address issues. It relies on the process of metaphor and symbols as it brings issues to the fore through the body.

Our first embodied performance in Nigeria was on the 14th of February 2015 when we commemorated the 1 year anniversary of the Chibok Girls abduction. It was done on the 3rd Mainland Bridge. I had just returned to Nigeria that week for the purpose of the anniversary and Playback Nigeria has been an active voice of the Chibok Girls on the international scene.

We did a couple of performances in Johannesburg, South Africa and it made the issue of the Chibok Girls remain on the scene in that city.

We reminded the world about the need to stand for the Chibok Girls but when we came back home to do similar performance, because it was new and the blogger that carried the story on her blog lacked the knowledge and did not do more than copy and paste, some people didn’t understand. Another embodied performance we did was during the launch of VACS and this was really impactful.

This time, we worked with children as performance and during the launch at International Conference Centre Abuja, we placed the children at strategic points in the hall from the entrance to the front of the stage and everyone who came for the launch could put a live picture of what violence against children was.

We explored forms of violence he children’s body and policy makers present were asking us to take the installations down.

Now this is the difference between creating posters and creating embodied works. Embodied work appeals to the conscience and people can easily get not just the live picture but the interpretation.

Rather than read rape, you see the impact of rape, rather than read physical violence, you see a child with a broken arm. That was our idea of doing iMarch4Children as an embodied march so when we marched on the street, people were not reading the messages, they could see the real issues and it touched them more.

So, how has the response been? Has the campaign made any impact?

We have received a lot of commendation after the march. A state government recently called us to repeat the same project in their state in June and we are considering it.

The iMarch4Children would be a yearly event and we would soon be placing adverts for the 2017 march so that we can have more partners and coordinators in all states. Online, we will continue with the #BreakTheSilence and hopefully introduce new methods to keep the page alive.

We are also complementing our online activities with real theatre projects. We are just working on training our team on our technique.

 

Beyond raising awareness on the dangers of violence against children, what else does the campaign hope to achieve?

The primary aim of the iMarch4Children is to end VAC in Nigeria. And to achieve that, we want people to start talking and we will do everything to support people to talk about their experience.

Your campaign has worked with some government and international organizations, how impactful has their input been?

We are glad that government and stakeholders appreciate the effort and impact of our work. It’s a journey we are starting and hope to get there soon.

 

Is there any ongoing effort to ensure the full implementation of laws that protect children and/or agitation for passage of more law?

States like Lagos state are implementing their laws. Ebonyi has family courts and other states also have plans. But none of these can work without the society’s involvement. We must be the change we want to see.

 

On survivors of child violence, do you provide counseling services for them?

We are working on a partnership with the Nigerian psychological association so that we can have technical reach in places we can go to. They are a big organization and use traditional approach while we bring to the table, alternative therapy through arts.