The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together with the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) sensitized community members to take action to end all forms of violence against women and girls for an inclusive society. The community outreach, which forms part of activities marking the 2022 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, was undertaken at Chorkor, a suburb of Accra in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

The call for action is in line with this year’s theme “Unite! Activism to end violence against women and girls”.

Speaking at the outreach, the UNDP Gender Analyst, Jennifer Asuako explained the need to create awareness and work with community members to break the silence on gender-based violence. This, she believes, will urge individuals to be on the lookout for violent tendencies and seek necessary help when needed.

“The aim for this outreach is to create awareness on gender-based violence and find ways to curb this menace. We notice that issues of gender-based violence are not reported by victims for fear of victimization. We want to extend the education to the grassroots and rally the community to support victims instead of avoiding them”, she said.

Mr. Yaw Odame Gyau, a Senior Lecturer at GIJ, highlighted the need for the academia to participate in outreaches like this. According to him, this opportunity gives students first-hand knowledge on how communities can rally towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He further opined that participating in this outreach also helps academia evaluate what is being taught in class with what is happening in communities.

“The key thing is that we want to take our works off the shelves as academics and bring it into the community and test the effectiveness of it and this outreach has helped us to do that. It has also highlighted the need to engage the communities more in order to create awareness about issues of gender-based violence. We look forward to partnering with UNDP on several other campaigns”, he said.

The outreach forms part of a series of activities marked by UNDP to call for the prevention and elimination of gender based violence and get communities involved in ensuring that the world is safe for all.