Be ambassadors of peace - organisation tells Ghanaian women
Ghanaian women have been urged to be ambassadors of peace before, during and after the December election.
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According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Legal Advocacy Research Education and Training (CLARiT), Mrs Jennifer Owusu, women and girls suffer disproportionately during and after war and civil strife.
She noted that women became more vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation as existing inequalities were magnified.
She, therefore, called on women in the country to help safeguard the peace and tranquillity in the nation.
That, she said, could be achieved by using their influential abilities at home to convince their husbands, brothers and sons to avoid acts that could lead to violence.
Speaking to marketing women at Agbogbloshie in Accra last Monday ahead of the polls tomorrow, Mrs Owusu said women’s participation was critical to the success of any peace-building process, adding that “a research by CLARiT in 2012 showed that women constituted the majority of Ghana’s population, so we realised that if there was going to be peace in Ghana then women had a role to play.”
WAVE Ghana programme
The research, she said, led to the designing of the “Women against Violence in Elections in Ghana” programme, popularly known as the “Wave Ghana Programme,” in 2012.
She said as part of the programme, which identified women who could influence the people they came in contact with to become ambassadors of peace, workshops were held to create awareness of the role women could play in fostering peace in Ghana.
According to Mrs Owusu, the programme, that aims at educating women on their roles to ensure peace and the negative effect of war on society, implemented the Wave Ghana Two programme this year, targeting both women and men, security agencies, civil organisations, professional bodies such as the Ghana Bar Association, Ghana Medical Association and Kayayei (female porters), among others.
God-given gift
For her part, a peace ambassador of CLARiT, Mrs Patricia Safo, said God had gifted women with patience, love and compassion and other influential attributes and urged all Ghanaian women to use such attributes to help maintain peace during the election.
She urged them to educate and inform their loved ones, families and people in their communities and Ghanaians in general to stay away from violence to ensure a peaceful election.
Addressing the market women, the Queenmother of the Agbogbloshie Market, Madam Ashiatu Quaye, popularly called Aunty KK, commended the organisation for its initiative and advised Ghanaians to place the interest of the country above their personal interest.
Under its Empowered Woman Series (Series One), CLARiT recently organised the sixth and final seminar in Accra recently at the end of which participants recognised the role of all Ghanaians in general and women in particular, in ensuring a peaceful election.
Participants also concluded that the State, Electoral Commission (EC) and relevant institutions and stakeholders such as the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the media had relevant roles to play in promoting peace before, during and after the election, while the relevant security agencies, the police and the Ghana Armed Forces, needed to be vigilant during the election to prevent or curb electoral violence.