March 30, 2021
By: Francis F.M.Harding
AdvocAid Sierra Leone in partnership with Legal Access for Women Yearning for Equal Rights (LAWYERS) and Troicare with funding from the European Union on Friday, 26 March, continued their awareness raising drive on enhancing access to justice for SGBV survivors and as well as promoting the rights of women and girls in the Western area, Kenema and Bombali districts.
The training which took place at the Milton Margai School for the Blind at Wilkinson road, Freetown brought together participants from the National School for the Deaf and the Milton Margai School for the Blind, was essentially to educate the visually impaired and the women and girls from the two schools about SGBV.
Mr. George N. Sheriff a paralegal at AdvocAid introduced the session and maintained that the training was an EU funded project activity, adding that there will be legal education session for various women groups on what SGBV entails.
Mr. Sheriff disclosed that the training will also make provision to educate the survivors on SGBV laws, nothing that with knowledge on SGBV and its laws, survivors or victims would be in a better position to prevent and similarly be able to report SGBV perpetrators to the appropriate authorities for further action.
The Legal Manager, AdvocAid Sierra Leone Lydia Kembabazi, noted that the project is to enhance access and as well as promote the rights of women and girls. She said for women with disabilities, sexual and gender based violence if often exacerbated by disability based discrimination. The social stigma coupled with specific in recognizing and avoiding danger, put disabled women and girls at a heightened risk of sexual and gender based violence; she lamented.
She disclosed the similar training for women and girls with disabilities is also being carried out in Bombali in the North and Kenema in the East. She encouraged the visually impaired and the deaf women and girls not to be discouraged as a result of their physical conditions, admonishing them to pursue their ambitions in life and be bold enough to report any cases of SGBV.
Marvel Thompson is a teacher at the Milton Margai School for the Blind; she expressed her deepest gratitude to AdvocAid Sierra Leone LAWYERS and Trocaire for the training the girls and women on such a sensitive topic. She called on their institution to replicate what they have learned.
She urged the appropriate authorities to strongly condemn and prosecute ant acts of rape in the country through robust investigations so that victims of rape will get justice They called on the government and humanitarian organizations to come to their aid in order to respond and protect them from sexual and gender-based violence.