PHOTO: Madam Valerie Coleman
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
A local nongovernmental organization, the West Point Women for Health and Development Organization has ended a one-day round table discussion aimed at curbing domestic and gender-based violence in the Township of West Point and its environs.
It was also intended to reduce discrimination against women
The round table discussion, which focused on youths and adults eradication of sexual and gender-based violence and masculinity norms, was sponsored by the European Union through OXFAM and the Foundation for Community Initiative.
Speaking in an interview shortly after the forum, the organization’s Program Manager, Valerie Coleman said the deliberation is intended to bring together young and older men purposely educate of the need to stop domestic and gender-based violence in the communities
She added that the organization wants the participants to serve as role models or ambassadors in their respective communities in curbing the reported high rate of ill treatment of young girls and women in Monrovia’s biggest slum district.
Participants at the forum
According to Madam Coleman, the discussion also centered on masculinity norms and the rights of partners in sharing the jobs and responsibilities in the homes.
“Over the years,” she went on, “people are of the opinion that domestic work belongs to women but this is not true because both partners should equally in the up-bringing of the children, doing the house work and underrating the bills.”
“There is no special jobs made for women or men, these are just misconceptions that developed in history of mankind over the years and these are what the international community is trying to erase.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the organization, Nelly Cooper, the round table discussion was organized because of the high rate of domestic and gender-based violence reported in the Township of West Point and its environs.
Nelly Cooper
She explained that the participants were selected from all over Electoral District Seven in Montserrado County so as to reach the larger audience who could not form part of the discussion.
Madam Cooper also disclosed that the participants were taught on the first step of the cases of rape in their respective communities so as to avoid the replica of this grave violence against girls and women in the society.
She encouraged other local and international nongovernmental organizations in the women’s sector to support her organization to help curb the high rate of sexual and gender-based violence in the area.
The facilitators and lecturers were drawn from the West Point Women for Health and Development Organization based in the Township of West Point in central Monrovia.