{"id":2286,"date":"2012-05-31T16:27:51","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T16:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.africlub.net\/awdf\/?p=2286"},"modified":"2012-05-31T16:27:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T16:27:51","slug":"call-to-action-stopping-violence-against-women-and-children-in-ghana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/OldSite\/call-to-action-stopping-violence-against-women-and-children-in-ghana\/","title":{"rendered":"CALL TO ACTION! – STOPPING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN GHANA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stop violence against women and children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the past few months, our radios and air spaces have been blasting out and vibrating with hair-raising acts of violence against women and children.\u00a0 What concerns us is the obvious disparity between the levels of violence before, and the levels currently. The magnitude of violence in Ghana is now overwhelming, and calls for immediate action from as many quarters as possible. The likely question on people\u2019s minds will be \u201cWhat are the various female activists in town doing? This, for us, is a very relevant question that requires prioritized and immediate action as its answer.<\/p>\n

Be it due to complacency or lack of commitment to issues, we are not yet certain, but we definitely have seen a decrease in awareness creation and public campaigns against Domestic Violence in the country. \u00a0Our media houses focus more on political issues and front-page scandals, amongst others, since these are what generate the huge amounts of revenue they desire. National issues surrounding Gender, Women, Children, and Empowerment have become de-prioritised in these media, only receiving central treatment once in every long while, or when prominent institutions and iconic figures make mention of them, which is often a momentary occurrence rarely sustained by the media stations.<\/p>\n

Time was, when the \u201cbig guns\u201d of\u00a0 women empowerment, female issues, and gender initiatives in Ghana all played very active roles before and during the 16days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, an event celebrated from 25th<\/sup> November to 10th<\/sup> December every year.\u00a0 All of a sudden this has ceased, and this event is marked by a few fluttering banners in inconspicuous locations in a few capital points in the country, a few newspaper and journal adverts with little stimulation or excitement to action, and very restrained, unexciting discussions in poorly publicized media programmes and forums. I vividly remember when we had attention-grabbing posters of abused women and children with inscriptions on them at vantage traffic lights in the capital which educated both literate and illiterate on the unacceptability of violence and abuse. \u00a0This was an effective method of sparking debates and discussions among passengers in cars, taxis and tro-tros and even on pedestrian-walks. Remember that violence is no respecter of persons, class, profession nor\u00a0 public standing, and anybody at all could fall victim to it at any point in time.<\/p>\n

From several recent reports coming in from Ghanaian media houses, Domestic Violence has taken on a new and deadly trend where abusers have progressed from physical battery to fatal attacks on both spouses and children. These attacks are often shown, post-occurrence, to have had murderous intent, \u00a0and\u00a0 at times bear inherent traits of lunacy or mental illness. If this does not call for immediate governmental, national, and societal intervention, nothing does.\u00a0 Below is a catalogue of some of the recent reports on violence from random points and mediums:<\/p>\n