Partner agencies and beneficiaries of a Gender-based Violence Against Women and Girls Project, have lauded the Project’s achievements at reducing domestic violence in the country and improving their livelihoods.

The three-year UN Women Trust funded project, commenced in June 2020, with the aim of reducing violence against women and girls in three communities of Chorkor, Nima and James Town in the Greater Accra Region.

It was also to improve the lives and livelihoods of women and young girls within the selected communities through various building capacity initiatives and skills training.

It was implemented by the International Network of Religious Leaders living with or personally affected by HIV and AIDS (INERELA+ Ghana) in partnership with the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DoVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Department of Social Welfare.

Speaking at the close out event of the Project, in Accra, over the weekend, Chief Inspector Millicent Baah Brown, Commander, DoVVSU-Nima Division, said the Project had brought significant change in the mindset of the citizens within the Nima and Maamobi communities and their environs.

As a result, she indicated that, cases of violence against women and girls such as rape and defilement in these communities, had reduced drastically within the three years of the Project implementation period.

‘Initially, they were not coming out to report cases of defilement and rape because they were afraid,’ she said.

‘Sometimes, coming out to report, maybe an elder (in the community) will sanction you for that or maybe your own family will stand against you for reporting them to the police, so they were not coming.

‘But, through the programmes held by INERELA and the education we gave them they understood, and they got to know that they don’t have to sit down and be abused,’ she added.

She urged members of the communities to continue to report such cases to the unit despite the end of the Project to sustain the gains made.

Mrs Yamfoah Amua-Sekyi, Director of Public Education at CHRAJ, said as an institution mandated to promote and protect the rights of citizens, the Gender-based…. provided the Commission the platform to educate Ghanaians on their rights and the various laws that guaranteed those rights.

She encouraged community leaders to ensure that the law enforcement agencies do their work and stop interfering with them to sustain the gains made.

‘We beg you, with all the laws and with all the efforts NGOs and civil societies like INERELA are doing, let us help them, let us speak up when something is wrong, ‘she urged.

Ms Rosemond Aboagyewaa Opoku, Senior Social Development Officer, Ayawaso North Municipal Assembly, said partnering INERELA had been an ‘amazing success story’ stressing that, through the Project citizens, especially women and girls who hitherto would not report cases of abuse had been emboldened to do so to the Department.

Mastura Ali and Elham Hussein, who were beneficiaries of the skills training hailed the impact of the Project on their livelihoods.

According to them, through the skills training provided to them by the Project, they were now able to manufacture soaps, beads, detergents, and fascinators which they sell and generate income.

Mrs Mercy Acquah-Hayford, National Coordinator, INERELA+ Ghana, revealed that more than 1,000 individuals had benefited from the Project over the last three years.

Going forward, she indicated, that the plan was to continue to monitor the progress of the beneficiaries to realise the Project’s goal, adding that, it intended to recruit more interested and vulnerable girls to learn from the beneficiaries to help reduce poverty.

ACP Jones Blantari, Board Chair of INERELA+ Ghana, said the country had made tremendous strides and impacted so many lives in the Project-selected communities.

He noted that, over the implementation period, it had empowered women and young girls who had been at risk of violence, helped improve access to legal assistance, psychosocial counselling, health care, skills training and help built a better network among stakeholders.

‘Violence against women and girls is unacceptable in our society and together, we can help minimse it,’ he emphasised.

Source: Ghana News Agency