By Millicent Senava Mannah
The Community of Practice (COP), with support from Irish Aid, climaxed 16 Days of Activism on Gender Based Violence by organizing a Community Stakeholder Engagement, which was geared towards influencing the interests of stakeholders towards the elimination of all forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) against women and girls during an event that took place at the Kossoh Town Community Hall situated within the Western Rural District.
Giving an overview of the engagement, the Secretary General of the aforementioned organization, Maseray Koroma, pointed out how Gender Based Violence could be sexual, physical, emotional, physiological and economic adding that any could be perpetrated by intimate partners, family members and community residents against a person or group of persons who then become the victim(s).
She intimated that women have the right to say no to sex and men must respect that decision further underscoring that men should be the supporting and protective pillars to their wives and that violence should not be a culture.
Maseray Koroma encouraged stakeholders to effectively sensitize residents of their communities in relation to the dangers of SGBV stressing how there are penalties against perpetrators of such violent acts.
The Outreach Team Lead and Executive Director of COME-SL, Alpha Barrie, explained the importance of the 16 Days of Activism revealing how they are specific days set aside to promote the rights of everyone, more especially women and girls who are the most vulnerable and to raise their voices against any harmful practices against them.
Chairlady of Kossoh Town Market, on her part, pointed out that violence is not only happening to women and girls saying boys should not be forgotten as they are sometimes abused by those they refer to as Sugar Mammies also revealing that violence against women and girls is more prevalent but men and boys too suffer from it in silence.
Lansana Bunduka, Administrative Officer of Comfort High School in Kossoh Town, disclosed how violence do occur in schools , underscoring that children are sometimes molested by teachers when they fail to answer questions or refuse to be subjected to inappropriate acts maintaining how such results to low participation in class /school work.
He continued that children always want to learn how it looks to be violent especially when they experience and witness violence at childhood stage. “We must choose what we say in the presence and how we treat them in co-educational institutions,” he cautioned.
Sia Fatmata Deen, another member of the community, commended the organization for such an engagement and pointed out the different forms of violence that occur and how they affect women and girls in their communities.
According to her, domestic violence and sexual violence are the most common among them and that women are mostly the victims of such.
