The International Women’s Day  celebrated globally on March 8 every year, is to recognise social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

The theme for the 2019 celebration is “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change” while the theme for the social media campaign is #BalanceforBetter.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos, Mrs Ngozi Ogbolu, the Chairperson of FIDA Nigeria, said that though numerous laws protected the rights of women, the consistent challenge had been women’s unawareness of the laws.

“In Lagos where I work from, the distribution of the laws are enough but the challenge we have is lack of awareness. Women do not know they have such rights as well as the backing of law;  there are so many laws protecting the rights of women. Women seem to fall when challenges keep coming; that is why the theme for this year is “Balance for Better, ” she said.

She said that, to tackle the challenge, the organisation began running a legal clinic at the Makoko Community in Lagos State to educate underprivileged women about their rights.

“FIDA has invited some women from the Makoko Community to educate them about their rights. We are teaching them about where to find their rights and where to get help when challenges come calling,” she said.

Ogbolu said that FIDA was championing  various causes which  protected the rights of women.

“At FIDA, we protect, preserve and improve the rights of women and children. We do advocacy, we create publicity about our various projects; for example, in Lagos we have jingles played on radio stations in English, Yoruba and Pidgin Languages, to sensitise women. We also do empowerment programmes”.

“We have a new ward at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital dedicated to FIDA Nigeria. We also file cases in courts, prosecute and defend for women and children,” she said. (NAN)