ActionAid Ghana on Friday launched a women empowerment and advocacy movement in the Upper West Region christened the Young Urban Women Movement (YUWM).
It seeks to empower women to advocate better opportunities and rights in the areas of Sexual and Gender Based Violence, unpaid care work and decent work.
The launch of the movement which already existed in other parts of the country was to inform stakeholders of the mandate of the YUWM in demanding for their rights and providing evidence of their existence in the region through advocacy at the community, district and national levels on issues of gender equality and women empowerment.
In the Upper West Region, the movement will include women in the Sissala East and Jirapa Municipalities and the Lambussie District as well as young women from the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD UBIDS) and the Dr Hilla Limann Technical University (DHLTU).
Addressing participants at the launch at Wa on Friday, the Head of Programmes of Campaigns and Innovations at the ActionAid Ghana, Mr Justin Bayor said the YUWM was an organised group with the aim of empowering young women living in rural and urban communities of Ghana with skills to secure economic independence and control over their bodies.
He added that the YUWM sought to encourage the women to pursue the promotion of gender equality by influencing policy discourse at the local and national levels.
“ActionAid Ghana will focus its attention on the YUWM in the Upper West Region and provide them with the needed support to ensure it grows in capacity and numbers to push the agenda of self-integrity, unpaid care work and economic security in line with the organisation’s aim of eliminating poverty.”
Mr Bayor said the movement was originally designed as a two-and-a-half-year project christened the Young Urban Women Life Choices and Livelihood Project but evolved to be a movement based on the success’s stories of the project.
He mentioned that movement had been working with some 6,500 women within the ages of 15 and 35 years across Northern, Volta, Upper East, Eastern and Bono Regions of the country to promote the dignity of women.
The National Chairperson for YUWM, Ms Dorcas Zoogah said the movement also sought to empower young people to help reduce teenage pregnancies and child marriages.
“YUWM is interested in creating awareness about inequalities against women and also sensitise women to demand for such rights through proper communication,” she said.
The Regional Director at the Department of Social Welfare, Ms Lilian Kpelle, commended the ActionAid Ghana for putting the group together and also encouraged them to make use of the opportunity to learn more about women empowerment.
She encouraged them to empower themselves and learn the necessary skills needed in order to stand up against abuse and other social vices perpetrated against women.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTONFORDJOUR, WA
