Building of a residential shelter proceeds in Niger
Federal Chancellor Merkel who gave the prize money to SOS FEVVF visited Niamey
The first recipient of the Government of Finland’s International Gender Equality Prize, Chancellor Angela Merkel, directed the sum of EUR 150,000 included in the prize to SOS FEVVF, a Nigerien organisation that defends the rights of women and girls.
The organisation is using the money to build a residential shelter, thus making a long-time dream of the organisation come true. Chancellor Merkel visited the construction site in Niamey in early May 2019.
Construction work on the shelter, located in the Nigerien capital of Niamey, began in October 2018.
At that time Mariama Moussa, the President of SOS FEVVF, sent an email to tell that the first materials had been delivered to the construction site and the workers had started to make bricks.
Since then the construction work on the residential shelter in the Nigerien capital has made good progress. In photos taken in May 2019, the President of SOS FEVVF Mariama Moussa and Chancellor Merkel talk at the construction site, where the brick walls are already in place.
Photos: Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung
When completed, the shelter will employ a psychologist, two social workers, two cooks, two cleaners, a guard and a driver. It will have four bedrooms, a conversation room, a kitchen and a space just for children.
Mental and sexual violence is a very common problem in Niger, and help is very seldom available to the victims. SOS FEVVF (SOS Femmes et Enfants Victimes de Violence Familiale; Women and Children Victims of Domestic Violence) is a civil society organisation that provides help to the most vulnerable women and girls even in the country’s most peripheral areas.
