December 15, 2021
BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
The Network Movement for Youth and Children’s Welfare (NMYCW) in partnership with Action Aid, has on the 14th December 2021, organized an open dialogue with youths and pupils on the prevention of Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The Theme for the dialogue is “stand up and say enough is enough to Gender Based Violence”.
Explain the purpose of the dialogue at the Dreams Complex Waterloo; the National Coordinator NMYCW Hajie Bah said their quest is to engage the school going pupils to speak up against Sexual and Gender Based Violence. He added that the anticipated outcome of the dialogue is to have a group of young people and a strategy in terms of communicating issues bordering on Sexual and Gender Based Violence particularly in the Waterloo Community.
Oh his part, Foday Bassie Swaray Executive Director of ActionAid said ActionAid decided to partner with NMYCW in order to take the conversation on Sexual and Gender Based Violence beyond the sixteen days of activism. He added that such dialogue is absolutely necessary on a daily basis rather than waiting for a particular moment for such discuss.
Foday Bassie Swaray acknowledged that sexual and gender based violence happens within communities on a daily basis which is the more reason they teamed up with NMYCW in order to create the needed awareness. He added that there are a lot of laws on sexual and gender based violence but the efficacious implementation of those laws has been a challenge. He highlighted that resources which government is supposed to allocate to those institutions manned with the responsibility to fight cases of sexual and gender based violence is very small.
In his statement, the Deputy Chief Administrator of the Western Area Rural District Council Alhassan Yillah commended the NMYCW for organizing such an important dialogue bordering on sexual and gender based violence.
He added that the NMYCW made no mistake in organizing the dialogue noting that, the dialogue was very timely and important.
The Deputy Chief Administrator expressed that issues of sexual and gender based violence is alarming and the issue is very pathetic to some of them.
He disclosed that there has not been a permanent solution in terms of eradicating sexual and gender based violence across the country.
The Western Rural District Youth Council Chairperson Ambassador Marie Bangura, explained her ordeal she noted that she is a survivor of sexual and gender based violence at the age of sixteen years. She added that her experience forced her to go into the SGBV activism in order to educate young girls about the dangers of being silent of SGBV abuse.
She advised state actors not to take sexual and gender based violence cases lightly adding that, SGBV has made a lot of young and promising girls become a school dropout.