Network for Young Women Empowerment in the Upper West Region as part of celebrating this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Children has embarked on a match through the principal streets of Wa, the Regional Capital of the Upper West Region while advocating the stoppage of Gender-Based Violence against Women and Children.
Clad in orange T-shirts and bans, they held placards bearing inscriptions that included; “silence leads to violence” “stand, speak, act” “real men don’t hit” “violence against women is the refuge of disgusting immoral men” “violence against women must stop” “respect women” among others.
On her part, Chairperson of Network for Young Women Empowerment (NYWE), Miss Ida Nakaar said the Network saw it necessary to carry men along in the campaign against Gender-Based Violence stressing that, if the Network intends to achieve the needed results, men must be brought on board.
“We think that this campaign that we are doing if we really need to get the needed results that we want, we need to carry the men along. That’s why we have dubbed this forum Men Against Violence,” she said.
“What can men do to help us in standing up against violence against women? We know that when we carry these men along we would be able to achieve the needed results that we want because most times it is these men that are perpetrators of these acts against women. So we think that as a Network let’s change our style or approach a bit from what we did last year so that whatever that we are discussing should be centred on the man. Men come out, tell us what can you do to help us, what is it that you are not doing right, what is that you are doing right you think that you can improve, those that you are not doing right can you right your wrongs so that together we can have zero tolerance for violence in our society”.
Miss Ida admonished women who are also abusing their men to desist from it.
“When we talk about Gender-Based Violence, most at times people think we are talking just for women, but we know that some women equally abuse their men, so to say that those women who are also doing it should desist from it. In terms of violence at times we have women even abusing women and men also abusing men,” she said.
During a symposium organised at the Sem B. Lodge in Wa after the float, an eight-member panel engaged young women from various women groups. The young women were also encouraged to make good use of the technological world in order to empower themselves.
ASP Adongo Apiiya, an officer at the Regional DOVVSU unit of the Ghana Police Service said, there is a decline in cases of Gender-Based Violence in the Upper West Region this year. He added that most of the cases recorded are coming from Women and Children stressing that they are the vulnerable group in society.
ASP Adongo urged citizens in the region to report cases of Gender-Based Violence to the police for action to be taken. He further appealed to parents and opinion leaders not to give out children for marriage because they are pregnant noting that, such acts must be condemned.
Meanwhile, Mr. Seidu Bomanjo a Development Communicator with GBC-Radio Upper West Region opined that the media must also be blamed for the content they churn out stressing that, most young women are abused through the media.
He also took participants through some of the laws that are protecting young women and children against Gender Based Violence.
On his part, Dr. George Dery, a Lecturer at the SDD-University for Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) stated that gender-based violence must be looked at broadly adding that, the physical abuse must not only be spotlighted to the detriment of the emotional, psychological and the other forms of Gender-Based Violence.
Source: myradiowaa.com
