Media practitioners in the Upper East Region have been trained on the Domestic Violence Act to empower them to report accurately on issues bordering on domestic violence at the community levels.
The Programme which was organised in Bolgatanga, last Friday by the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM) with funding from ActionAid Ghana, drew media practitioners from both the print and the electronic media.
The Women’s Rights Officer of WOM, Ms Patricia Ayichuru, said a survey conducted by her outfit indicates that even in this 21stcentury, there were a lot of women and children including men who were abused at the community levels.
While commending the media for reporting on some of the issues bordering on domestic violence, she underscored the need for the media to do more by throwing the searchlight in the remote areas.
The Station Officer at the Regional Office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Police Inspector Godfrey Quaye, stated that unlike before, many of the victims of domestic violence now report to the office.
That, he attributed to the awareness creation undertaken by his outfit in partnership with other stakeholders including civil society organisations.
Mr Quaye mentioned defilement, rape, beatings and the neglect of responsibilities of many men among some of the topmost cases in the region and called on the media to use their platform to educate the general public on the need to report such cases to his outfit.
The Upper East Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Abdulai Jaladeen, took the participants through what constitutes domestic violence and its human rights violation.
He stated that domestic violence were not only associated with beating of women and children, but also negative acts such as verbal harassment, neglect, denial of the provision of food meted out to women and children including men and the aged.
The media practitioners who acknowledged the knowledge gained from the training programme, pledged to collaborate effectively with DOVVSU and other stakeholders to help fight the canker.
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, BOLGATANGA
