By Saio Marrah
The Fifty-Fifty Group in partnership with Plan International-Sierra Leone has on Friday 10th of December 2021 ended the 16 days of activism, a campaign focused on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) against women and girls.
The climax of the campaign that ended on the International Human Rights Day, started on the 25th of November this year with the theme: “Stop Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Sierra Leone Now!”
The end of the activism was held at the Fifty-Fifty Women’s Group Building in Freetown. The different youth groups also participated in the campaign.
The Fifty-Fifty women’s Group advocates and campaigns for an increased political participation, and equal representation of women in decision-making processes, at all levels.
The Project Manager and Chairperson of Plan International-Sierra Leone Women’s Forum Network, Khadijatu Bakarr said the campaign was launched by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership (CWSL) at its first Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and has been used worldwide to call for the elimination of SGBV.
She noted that in different parts of the world, Plan International stands firmly with the government and partners to end the provoked suffering of girls and women in society.
Ms. Bakarr said SGBV is a major issue in societies today and that it takes concerted efforts to address, combat, and enlighten people on it.
She said their organization has made significant progress in addressing SGBV by taking the action through their gender transformative projects and programmes, in order to ensure they deal with issues affecting girls and women especially in creating a safer environment for them in the communities they work.
The Director of Gender and Children’s Affair at the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, Gloria EM Bayoh, said the 16 days activism is an annual international campaign addressing issues of violence against women and girls. She described it as a global pandemic that affects one out of every three women in their lifetime. She explained the violence ranges from physical to sexual at the hands of an intimate partner, a non-partner, or both at some point in their lives.
According to her, over the last decade, the levels of violence against women have remained largely unchanged. Women are mostly marginalized, such as those with disabilities, refugees or indigenous women who are at a disproportionate risk and face greater barriers to services and justice.
She noted that the 2019 Demographic and Health Survey showed that 26 percent of women aged 15 to 49 had suffered physical or sexual assault and with the era of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it was expected that SGBV rates in Sierra Leone, which were already unacceptably high, would worsen.
She said the 2020 report by the Family Support Unit (FSU) of the Sierra Leone Police indicated that out of the 12, 830 general crime statistics , cases of crime against women and children was 3, 091, cases of sexual penetration of children 139, rape 9, and 600 cases of domestic violence.
Mis. Bayoh said SGBV in all its form is a human right violation and affects not only people who are directly targeted, but also the whole society.
She added that their office is always open for any form of human rights complaints and that they work with different government agencies by referring cases to the appropriate authorities like the FSU.
The Assistant Public Relations Officer at the Fifty-Fifty , Marian Pleasant Kargbo, said SGBV issues do not only affect women, but men as well. But noted that since women and girls are the weaker and that sexual violence is more about dominance, it is common to women and girls the most.
The Former President of the Fifty-Fifty group, Dr. Fatou Taqi, acting as the Chairperson of the programme, said most people are afraid to talk about it because of threat from perpetrators.
She however called on everyone to come out and speak out, as according to her, there are NGOs and other campaigners out there to protect them. She noted that Rainbo, one stop call centre and FSU are among the protectors of the affected people.
She called on the young people to be ambassadors of the campaign and also encouraged them to set up their groups gearing towards curbing violence against women and girls.
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