The Israeli Embassy in Ghana has marked the 2024 international day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women (16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence) to highlight the need for concerted efforts to tackle the menace.
In collaboration with the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) and Yenmaso Global Centre for Mental Health, the Embassy hosted a panel discussion on the theme “Addressing Gender-Based Violence, the Israeli and Ghanaian Experience”.
Mr Roey Gilad, Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, who moderated the discussion said the event was to highlight challenges of gender-based violence in Israel and Ghana to serve as a platform to share experiences and learnings from both countries.
He noted that cultural and religious causes of gender-based violence cut across the globe with Israel and Ghana not exempted adding “we share similar experiences and concerns when it comes to gender-based violence”.
Buttressing his point, the Ambassador disclosed that in 2023, 32 Israeli women lost their lives and 27 women in 2024 so far, due to Gender-based violence and stressed the need to empower victims to speak up, seek for help to save lives.
Madam Otiko Djaba, Former Gender Minister, called for aggressive sensitisation on gender-based violence to create the awareness to ensure that people could easily identify Sexual and Gender-based violence and act fast to save their mental health and lives in general.
She also urged government to increase the GBV funding to the Gender ministry to implement effective programmes and measures to reduce GBV occurrences.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Owusu Kyeremeh, Director of DOVVSU, said her outfit had adopted an approach which puts the survivor or victims of GBV at the centre of intervention, shifting from the traditional way of handling such issues.
She revealed that in partnership with donor organizations, the one-stop-centre for GBV cases at DOVVSU equipped with a clinic and other state-of-the-art facilities would soon have a laboratory to conduct all sorts of medical test in relations to GBV cases.
In the interim, she said DOVVSU had set up child interview rooms in about six regions while plans were advanced to expand facilities of DOVSSU in all regions.
Earlier, Madam Nitza Gilad, head of Public and Cultural Diplomacy, at the Israeli Embassy congratulated Ghana’s first ever female vice president-elect Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, for her attaining that feat and hoped it would open more opportunities for Ghanaian women.
She called for prayers for the women, children and families of Israeli’s who had been kidnapped by terrorists since last year and hoped that with women standing behind them all over the world they would come back safely.
Source: myghanadaily
