By Grace Q. Bryant
Medica-Liberia over the weekend launched phase three of the BMZ project aimed at strengthening communities and institutions to promote the psychological health of women and girls affected by violence and increased their protection from gender. In two counties
The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development, UNDP Liberia, Medicore Foundation/ pro Victimis, Comic Relief UN Women and Montica to help stakeholders increase of women and girls against SGBV in Montserrado and Margibi in the context of COVID-19, pandemic.
Giving the overview of the program marking the official launch of MedicaLiberia BMZ project, the County Director of Medica-Liberia, Atty Yah V. Parwon said the project will target affected areas like Monsterrado and Margibi Countries in context of the COVID-19 crisis
She added that people were trained to support survivors of violence and that project lasted for 2016.
“Phrase one started in Montserrado and Margibi. It was really about addressing the issue of violence against women and girl and ensure that the community have structures in place people were trained and public services actors to support survivors of violence and that project lasted for 2016,” she said.
According to her, due to the lapses in the first phase, the second phase was launch to strengthen these Communities established structures to become autonomous so that survivors can have access to support that ended in July of this year.
“Our strategy from 2022 to 2025 focus on gender equality, empowering community to end violence against women and girls,” she added.
She added that the goal of the program is to strengthen community-based organizations and structures to respond to their own need and promote women economic justice.
“What we have achieve with the BMZ support over the years, we work at three different level, micro-level which is the community level, the level of the survivors and we established and trained 76 support group women in 12 communities, and empower 150 women through village saving loan program,” she pointed out.
Madam Parwon emphasized that the project will promote inclusive political participation and elimination of violence against women in politics and also strengthening women’s rights advocates’ capacities to support the integration of ending VAWG into county development agenda.
However, Mr. Peter Speyrer who represented the German Ambassador revealed that the African Union and the leadership of the AU are recognizing the issue saying, “It used to be that African women had to fight for their rights with the men being the perpetrators but African male leaders are catching up and are getting personally engaged in the fight against gender-based violence.
“Nothing justifies daily suffering of women in the face of violence in all its forms, it is the women will bear the full brunt of the issue and often times traditions or religious practices are invoked in order to justify gender-based violence,” he expressed.
Mr. Speyrer added that one way to overcome GBV in Liberia is the increased involvement of women in society, employment and especially in politics.
He maintained that women will soon have more power in Liberia because the new electoral code which is to be signed into law hopefully soon provides for a minimum 30/70 gender balance.
“We see concerned parents speaking up; we see concerned youth speaking up, even victims of FGM and forced kidnapping are coming out of the closet now and we are beginning to see a slow shit in the way Liberia looks at FGM and handles FGM issues,” he noted.
Adding, “Until we manage to create the perfect world without violence, without harassment, without force, we will need organizations like medica who are there to help the victims.”