The Interfaith Forum of Muslim and Christian Women’s Association, or Women’s Interfaith Council (WIC), is a non-governmental, non-profit, interfaith and voluntary organisation established in 2010 in the State of Kaduna. The organisation is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission under Nigerian law. The purpose of the organisation is to bring together Kaduna leaders and members of women’s faith groups under one umbrella, to address peace and conflict issues, women’s and poverty-related issues.
While WIC’s vision is “a society where Muslims and Christians live together in peace, where the rights of women are respected, and where women are protagonists of peaceful coexistence”; its mission is “to enable women of faith associations in working together to build peace and stability in Nigeria, Kaduna in particular, by addressing conflict issues and issues of concern to women with the primary focus on conflict, poverty, insecurity and vulnerability”.
The vision and mission of WIC are from the perspective of being entry points to a deeper engagement with the various stakeholders, particularly faith groups, on issues related to interfaith peaceful coexistence, the greater involvement of women in the community and security issues within the state and beyond. To facilitate this, WIC creates and sustains interest in conflict analysis and transformation; interfaith understanding and collaboration; gender and poverty issues which inhibit women from assuming their roles as peace makers and peace builders in society.
WIC’s core objectives include:
• To provide a forum for leaders and members of Muslim and Christian women’s faith organisations to come together in sincere and concrete dialogue. • To enable Muslim and Christian women’s faith groups to work together in the peace-building process and to address issues that are causing conflict. • To facilitate Muslim and Christian women’s faith organisations to work together to address women’s common concerns.
As “Mothers of a Culture of Peace”, WIC also extends its activities to include youth and the promotion of greater youth involvement in peacebuilding and harmonious interfaith co-existence. To this end, the Youth Interfaith Council (YIC), the youth wing of WIC, was established.
Though WIC currently only operates in State of Kaduna, it intends to extend its work and activities to other states of northern Nigeria where religion is often perverted to perpetrate violence.
WIC is a member of many networks working to promote peace like: Women's Peace and Security Network, Partners for Peace, United Religions Initiative and Women Preventing Extremist Violence Network.
