SMAid, a non-profit making organisation in Sunyani, has organised a day’s sensitization seminar on gender-based violence for some selected women groups as part of this year’s International Women’s day celebrations.
The seminar was to equip the participants with the requisite knowledge and information about gender-based violence and other related issues and how to put them under control.
Ernest Owusu, Bono and Ahafo Project Coordinator of SMAid, stated that gender-based violence continues to be prevalent in most communities in the country, saying this negative act retards the progress of women.
He said it is incumbent on society to give women more opportunities to rise up in life, rather than subjecting them to all kinds of inhumane treatments.
He disclosed that as part of an effort to empower women, his organisation had so far trained about 350 women in employable skills to enable them fend for themselves and their families.
Bright Asare, a senior investigator at Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Police Service, stated that women fear taking leadership positions in the country because sometimes their own family members discourage them from doing so.
He said it is important to encourage and support one’s female family members to stand firm and assume leadership positions.
An assistant programme officer of the Department of Children, Richlove Anima Boachie, also called for equal opportunity for men and women “because they are like a machine with four legs one cannot work without the other”.
