We are what we do

Monsurat Ajoke Foundation came into being due to what the founder had gone through in her years of marriage and her conviction that, with the support of almighty God and other like-minded people, she will use everything within her power to ensure that such will not happen to other women around her.
Monsurat Ajoke Foundation (MAF) is a registered non-governmental and charity organization. Though it has commenced operation in 2015 while it later got the certification of Corporate Affairs Commission in the year 2020. MAF is a product of the first-hand experience of evil that women and children abuse and the passion to fight it in conjunction with other women.
To put it succinctly, MAF priorities are;

1. To counsel and associate with women who suffer in silence and endure untold hardship from their partners and to empower women to grow and
realize their full potentials without hindrance or discrimination.
2. The primary purpose of the Foundation is to shift the focus from fixing problems as well as healing the past to focusing on what we want for our
lives, our organizations, communities, and society at large with practical ways of how to achieve it. Violence against women and children is a serious public health concern and negatively affecting the future of children with grave costs at multiple levels of society. Although violence is a threat to everyone but women and children are particularly susceptible to victimization because they often have fewer rights or lack appropriate means of protection.

Women and children suffer from various forms of abuse such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, cultural abuse, financial abuse, early marriage, molestation, labour, kidnapping, and neglect among others. Many laws and policies were put into place with the purpose of protecting children from abuse. However, they have not been effective for many reasons which include; including poor enforcement mechanisms, poverty, corruption, lack of rehabilitation of sexual offenders, the negative attitude of parents, and inefficient judicial processes.

In some societies, certain types of violence are deemed socially or legally acceptable thereby contributing further to the risk of women and children abuse.
According to MAF research and experience, violence happened in two forms; violence by an inmate and an outsider. Sadly, most of this violence is inmate violence-related. Statistically, 35% of women and children worldwide suffer physical, emotional, cultural, financial, and sexual abuse by an inmate or non-inmate partners. Across the globe, almost one-third (30%) of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and sexual violence by their intimate partners. Women who have been physically or sexually abused by their partners report higher rates of a number of important health problems. For example, there are 16% more likely to have a low-birth-weight baby. They are more than twice as likely to have an abortion, almost twice as likely to experience depression, and, in some regions, are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV, as compared to women who have not experienced partner violence. Globally, 37% of women have been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner.

There are fewer data available on the health effects of non-partner sexual violence. However, the evidence that does exist reveals that women who have experienced this form of violence are 2.3 times more likely to have alcohol use disorders and 2.6 times more likely to experience depression or anxiety. Globally also, as many as 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners. Nigeria is no exception to the prevalence of child marriage in rural communities, especially in the country’s northern States. 15% of women are suffering from vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) because of early child marriage. 1 in 7 children are physically abused while 4 in 7 women are physically abused every day. 1 in 20 men are sexually abused while 10 in 20 women. 4 in 20 men are emotionally abused while in 9 in 20 women are emotionally abused and so on.

All these statistics and data sadden the noble and selfless group of people and their final verdict give birth to MA Foundation to provide a solution, reduce the negative stats and data surrounding our women and children and eradicate all sort of abuse, discrimination, molestation, assaults, lack of support, denying of female right and so on.

MA Foundation stands to provide support, counseling, awareness, sensitization, and empowerment to our women and children and also fight for the victim of the circumstances legally and take good care of them.