Facilitated by the Coordinator of the Service, this One-Day Workshop held on the 13th of August 2020 at the Conference Hall of Bamenda III Council with over 50 Women and Youth actively taking part, coming from over 20 quarters in the municipality.
The facilitator defined Gender-Based Violence as an umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will, and that is based on socially ascribed (gender) differences between males and females. It includes acts that inflict physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion, and other deprivations of liberty. These acts can occur in public or in private.
To ensure more comprehension, she also defined Sex and Gender, while using some of the participants to act role plays. She also defined Emergency as a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment, then went further to present how GBV manifests in such a situation, particularly in Armed Conflict, while highlighting its trends, with 01 in every 03 women suffering from it.
From the Group Works where participants shared their views on common GBV issues in their localities and proposing strategies & solutions to go about them, they shared their results in plenary which mostly centered around emotional, economica and sexual GBV.
As a way forward, among others, they proposed a formal collaboration between the council and the JPS, involving quarter heads in the fight against GBV.
On her part, the Second Deputy Mayor promised the re-establishment of the Bamenda III Women’s Forum, creating a WhatsApp Group for participants to keep in touch and share their experiences, and like other participants, expressed the need for the creation of a center for counseling and a women’s Empowerment center within the council.
Thw Workshop ended with the JPS distributing some of its educative materials (posters & flyers) on GBV, Resolution 1325 on Women in Peacebuilding Processes, Trafficking in Persons, etc. and exercise books, while promising to organize another workshop in the future on Reporting Cases of GBV.