THR MEDIA is a social development consulting enterprise with expertise in gender mainstreaming through research, media, program development and management.

We also provide solutions to help survivors break free, find shelter and recover from Sexual Gender-Based-Violence (SGBV), Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA), trafficking, and other types of exploitation.

SGBV survivors are mostly socially excluded from services that can support their recovery. Most support services are generalized and not custom made for the period of recovery or even prevention of recurrence. Our vision is to see a world with reduced incidence of SGBV amongst girls and women, full recovery and social reintegration of survivors.

Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of help-seeking behavior. Among women aged 15–49 who have survived physical or sexual violence, whether the perpetrator was an intimate partner or not, 45 percent never sought help or told anyone about the experience, only 31 percent sought help from any source, and 12 percent told someone about their experience but did not seek help (NPC and ICF International 2014).

Help-seeking behaviors among urban and rural women are minimally different at 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively (NPC and ICF International 2014). The extremely low levels of help-seeking behavior by survivors is due to: the stigma around GBV; the idea that a woman is partially responsible for being victimized under the assumption that she must have transgressed in some way from her socially expected role and therefore deserves punishment; fear of family disgrace if the issue is not addressed privately; and a dearth of and lack of awareness of specialized GBV services. These attitudes reinforce the impunity and acceptance of GBV among survivors, their families, and their neighbors, who seek to cover up incidents. It is even common for health providers and justice and security officials to “look the other way” and ignore cases of GBV.