AngloGold Ashanti Limited has pledged its readiness to provide support for the campaign to end violence against women and children.
The pledge was made by the Social Development and Gender Superintendent at Anglogold Ashanti, Mavis Nana Yaa Kyei at a sensitization program held at Tutuka market in the Obuasi East District to create awareness on issues of domestic violence to mark the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence which commences on November 25 each year.
Speaking at the program, the Gender Superintendent said “we supported this sensitization program at Tutuka because of our stance against violence meted out to women and children.”
The Inspector in charge of the Obuasi Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), Louisa Suglo revealed that her outfit has recently seen an upsurge in the reported cases of violence against women and children in the Obuasi Area.
She emphasized that “Dovvsu has for the past months put in place measures to end domestic violence against women and children by moving from one school to the other, to sensitize girls on how to guard against domestic violence” and went on to “call for immediate action to curtail the worrying situation.”
Samuel Asante Yeboah, Sub-regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on his part “charged women to report cases of domestic violence immediately after it happens and not wait till it gets out of hand.”
He added that the laws of the country, ACT 732,2007 clearly spells out punishments for those who perpetrate violence against women insisting that institutions like CHRAJ, DOVVSU, and Social Welfare exist to offer help to victims of domestic violence.
Globally, 38 percent of murder cases were perpetrated against women by intimate mates, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), therefore, raising the alarm on the importance to implement stringent measures to address the canker.
Additionally, according to the statistics available at the Accra Regional Office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), as of August 2020, 31.9% of Ghanaian women have faced at least one form of domestic violence – physical, economic, psychological, social or sexual.