Women urged to report cases of Violence against them

A workshop aimed at building the capacities of communities to strengthen the fight to end all forms of violence against women and girls took place last Tuesday March 6, 2018 in Buea with women called upon to report all cases of violence against them. The workshop is part of a project being implemented by the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Foundation, LUKMEF to improve access for women and girls to basic and safe services to ensure the end of all forms of violence against women and girls in Cameroon.

The project funded by the United Nations Trust fund, UNTF and LUKMEF is partnering with several national and international bodies including: the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family MINPROFF, Voices for Women, VOW, the International Federation of women Lawyers, FIDA and the Pan-African Institute for Development, PAID-WA.

With LUKMEF charged with the implementation of the project in the North West, South West, Littoral, East, West and Centre regions of the nation, it is expected that desired results will come knocking soon.

The Workshop which took Place at the Buea Women’s empowerment centre, saw attendees gain useful knowledge to improve their capacities and learn methods through which they can change the culture of silence and inaction which hinders the progress of fighting against gender-based violence.

With presentations from the likes of; Mafor Barrister Gladys Mbuyah, Barrister Cecilia Tutuwan, Barrister Elizabeth Atemkeng, Barrister Elizabeth Finjap and Registrar Mary Anne, participants were able to distinguish between psychological and emotional violence, sexual violence and economic violence and how each one can affect the health, mental state or the financial wellbeing of and individual and the nation as a whole.

The prime objective of the project which is expected to run for the next 3 years, will see an increase in the level of public awareness about violence against women and girls as a human right violation as well as improve information on available support services in 6 regions of Cameroon by 60 to 70%.

It also seeks to improve the capacity of women and girls in the community to have quality information on gender-based violence as a human rights violation and have the knowledge of the available response services to survivors of violence and those at risk.

The National President of the International Federation of women Lawyers (FIDA) told this reporter that in our Cameroonian context, violence against women and girls continues to stare us in the face despite all the efforts made in the past to eradicate the phenomenon.  To her, the paradigm needs to shift from words to action. Women’s attitudes towards violence needs to change and they need to report such cases more. This will enable social services and other stakeholders to have more statistics which can lead to more punishment for perpetrators of such heinous crimes.

 The project has put a mobile application known as “OPS4Women” at the disposal of Cameroonians which can help everyone to track and report cases of violence, find and contact service providers, talk to experts on the subject and know what the law says about violence against women and girls.