DOHS PODCAST’S GROUNDBREAKING RECORDS
The Document Our HiStory (DOHS) Podcast is the first of its kind in Nigeria, in Bibliotherapy podcasting practice, and also in Bibliotherapy practice for healing the trauma of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) survivors and victims.
The podcast is hosted by Ololade Ajayi, a Feminist, award winning Poet and Human Rights Advocate.
This innovative podcast explores the connections between Sexual and Gender Based Violence, People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWH) and other health and human rights related issues. Bibliotherapy, being a form of therapy that uses literature to help in healing processes, is employed by the DOHS Podcast to assist both potential victims and actual survivors of SGBV in escaping from abuse, trauma and eventually disabusing their minds through Poetry and other literary resources.
In the first episode of the DOHS Podcast volume 1, Odeworitse Eyeioyibo (PhD) a Bibliophile, accomplished poet and orator, said that poetry helps one with epiphany like revelations because it digs out the intimate feeling of the heart and therefore, can lead to an avenue for healing. He described poetry as the language of the indirect, quoting Emily Dickinson’s famous poetry collection: ‘tell all the truth, but make it slant’.
Ololade Ajayi rounded up the introductory episode of the DOHS podcast with a poem she wrote titled ‘Womanity’ which succinctly captures the link between between Medicine and Literature;
This is how we school, we school in droves,
choosing courses that helps navigate the reasons why we die in childbearing
Courses that will help to document our history while owning narratives and directing conversations about our bodies:
Hence narrative medicine!
A click on www.dohspodcast.com will take listeners to multiple platforms where the Podcast can be listened to.
The sponsor of the podcast, the Goldstein Center for Human Rights of the university of Nebraska in Omaha, posted a press release (GCHR is excited to sponsor DOHS Podcast) about their delight in sponsoring the the podcast.
The podcast is partnering with several non governmental organizations to carry out a sensitization campaign on sexual and gender-based violence themed ‘Speak Up Against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence’ #SUASGBV, on the 27th of August 2022 in Alimosho Local Government: DOHS PODCAST PARTNERS WITH ACVPN TO CURB SGBV
In an episode, the host Ololade Ajayi revealed her struggle as a victim of female genital mutilation and describes it as a gross and fundamental human right violation, she says it affects her life on various end, especially her sexuality and even in child bearing . another episode featured a pregnant lady and a mother of one who revealed the signs to watch out for in an abusive partner through their experience, haven ignored the subtle signs that they recognize as patterns of abuse.
A poster face for PLWH Opeoluwa of Iampositive also spoke on the podcast about her issues on HIV and the connection between SGBV and HIV, while an endangered child shared her mother’s stories about the horrors they lived through at the hands of her stepfather living with Sexual Violence.
The podcast frowns on abuse of any kind and is able to encourage potential victims to speak out. Most of the guests on the podcast are victims who the host were personally involved in their rescue from a toxic environment.
The second season is expected to begin in September with results from the sensitization campaigns it envisages to roll out in local communities across Lagos, Nigeria.
