By Samuel Akumatey
Ho, July 27, GNA – Stakeholders in the fight against gender-based violence in the Volta Region have commended the Transformative Action for Gender Equality Project (TAGE), which is geared towards enhancing institutional response in ending gender-based violence in communities.
The Project is an initiative of Action Aid Ghana with support from the International Federation of Women Lawyers and funded by the European Union.
It is being Implemented in 16 communities each in the Volta, Northern, Upper East and Greater Accra regions, and key among its features is the introduction of the Community-Based Anti-violence Teams (COMBAT) made up of a representation of key local stakeholders who serve as first respondents in cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
The project built collaboration and direct linkages with various State actors including the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service (DOVVSU), the Ministry of Gender’s Departments of Gender and Social Welfare, and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.
Women in the beneficiary communities were trained and given toolkits to report violence, while an innovative victim reporting boxes concept were deployed to facilitate anonymous reporting.
Mrs Thywill Eyra Kpe, the Volta Regional Director of Gender, at a feedback session on the Project, said it added significantly to the nation’s anti-domestic violence campaign, and deserved commendation for encouraging the support of law enforcement and other state and non-state actors to support victims of domestic violence, adding that media engagements, particularly radio sensitisation recorded laudable impact.
“It has been a very important journey for us as a department to be part of the TAGE Project for these past two years. Gender issues are very entrenched, but they are issues that people shy away from.
People don’t want to talk because they are seen as personal. So, TAGE has provided us the platform to not only engage the project communities but also to engage other stakeholders within the regions to see how best we could address the issues of gender equality, issues of women empowerment and issues of institutional response to gender-based violence and to the rights of women.
And from these engagements we realised that people are bold to come forward and report some of these cases to the law encroachment agencies and other organisations that can give them the needed support,” she told the GNA at the meeting.
The Gender Director said pertinent issues in the region remained assault, with intimate partner abuse and defilement topping the list, while child non-maintenance persisted as a major cause of victimhood.
She said other partners and initiatives including the UNFPA continued to intervene in gender issues in the region and called for continuous collaborative efforts at sustaining interventions in view of the growing populations.
Madam Faustina Awumey, Volta Regional Coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, said more men were beginning to report abuses as the project worked to address stigma and other factors inhibiting male reporting.
“We are encouraging the public to know that DOVVSU is not for women only. More men are becoming more aware, and we want to sustain the education as Action Aid is doing now,” she said.
Traditional rulers at the meeting expressed willingness to help sustain the gains of the project and spoke of gains in behavioural change among youths.
Ms Thelma Asabre, Project Officer shared, “positive feedback” with a reduction in domestic violence including spousal abuse, owing to increased awareness on various channels of reporting, and commended the COMBAT teams, saying, “they have done a great job.
“So far, the project implementation has been very great. We started with communities that have high prevalence of violence but with the constant engagement with the community gate keepers, the community members themselves and all the stakeholders involved, we’ve had very great number of people knowing their rights and then knowing what constitutes gender-based violence and also knowing the channels to report gender based violence when he sees such in their communities.
She shared how COMBAT teams were instilling parental discipline in communities especially in the Greater Accra region, but said challenges included the unavailability of shelters for victims of gender-based violence, as well as reluctancy to reporting abuses.
She said as the project concluded, stakeholder collaboration would be required in maintaining the impact, and that the feedback session would inform on current trends of domestic violence and deliberate on enhancing the roles of various actors.
“The project is ending but Action Aid’s work in the various communities is not going to end. We will continue engagement with the various community members and ensure that the COMBAT members are properly linked with our state actors.
GNA