The
Women’s Bureau and TANGO held a two-day advocacy meeting on Gender-based
Violence and Female Genital Mutilation at the Paradise Suites Hotel recently.
The
meeting brought together NGOs and CBOs to discuss and sensitise them on the
Women’s Amendment Act 2015, Domestic Violence Act 2013, Sexual Offences Act
2013 and other international laws that promote and protect the rights of women
and girls.
Speaking
at the opening of the meeting, Kajali Sonko, deputy Executive Director at the
Women’s Bureau, said the objective of the training session, as highlighted, was
indeed important for them to share the contents of the Women’s Amendment Act on
issues of FGM, Domestic Violence Act 2013 and Sexual Offences Act 2013, as well
as other series of international conventions and treaties that the government
of The Gambia had signed.
“As
we all know that Government is committed to promoting and protecting the rights
of women and girls, through the enactment of a series of legislations and also
putting in place mechanisms for the implementation of these legislations,” Mr
Sonko added.
This advocacy meeting would serve as a
reference point for all of them, to be able to disseminate the information to
the grassroots level to harmonize well understood means of behavioural change
and communication, because when one talks of domestic violence, and violence in
general, it leads to behavior change, he said.
The
Women’s Bureau is the government arm that is given the responsibility in
dealing with the health and well-being of women and girls, and over the years
they have developed a communication strategy on wife battering, Sonko
continued.
“This
communication strategy has given us the potential ways of disseminating
information using series of channels of communication for us to make sure that
we work on the mindset of the population on domestic violence or violence in
general which is not accepted by any religion, tradition or culture.”
Mr
Sonko further said that over the years they also engaged traditional rulers, as
well as opinion leaders both in urban and rural areas, and this shows the clear
manifestation of government’s commitment in addressing issues of domestic
violence and FGM/C.
“As
we dealt into the sustainable development goals; we all know that Government
needs support from the private sector, including NGOs and CBOs for the
realisation of these noble goals. We can only achieve SDGs when there is gender
equality/equity and empowerment of women and girls, and the contribution of
CBOs are quite very important,” he told the participants.
By
putting the enabling environment for the participation of CBOs and NGOs, it was
important to make sure that they achieve the SDGs, he went on.
Tabou
Njie-Sarr, programme officer TANGO, said the attendance of the participants
shows the commitment they have in the services that they provide to the
beneficiaries they serve, as well as the cordial relationship between the
Gambia government and the NGOs operating in the country.
She said the invitation is not only restricted
to TANGO members, but also extended to other NGOs as well.
“We
will continue to provide capacity building to our members and others, as we
know that we can provide effective services only when we are fully capacitated
and then we can go ahead to exchange this services.”
Also
the services that they give goes beyond, because they intervened in areas which
is hard to reach and based on that facts, applying such knowledge from such
training activities would only help in the effective deliverance of the
services that they provide.
She
urged them to utilise and disseminate the information they got from the training
course, when they go back to their respective institutions, so that others who
are not at the training session can also benefit from it.
Mam
Amie Jobe, during her presentation on the Domestic Violence Act 2013, Sexual
Offences Act 2013 and Women’s Amendment Act 2015, said most of the time when
rape occurs the perpetrators are not strangers, but are people who are close to
the victim.
She cited a case where whenever a baby cried
the man would bring out his manhood and put it inside the baby’s mouth, until
when the baby got sick and the mother took the baby to the hospital. The doctor
asked the mother what she was feeding the baby with. She said the baby later
died.
Many
a time, when people cite such cases others would start asking whether it
happens in the country.
She
said these are cases that are real and happening in the country, and people
have to talk about them and report them as well.
It
was not only babies that are raped, as even elderly women are raped as well and
there is no age limit when it comes to rape, she said, adding that rape is bad
and it is something people should not cover up.
“We are the ones who make the laws dormant,
because if we don’t report cases the Act will be dormant. Since 2013, we have
not prosecuted anybody under the Act because people are not reporting.”
Since
it involves family and closed relatives, people are not coming out to report,
she added.
