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Liberia: Afell Opens Endowment Fund for SGBV Victims
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The Inquirer (Monrovia)
13 September 2007
Posted to the web 13 September 2007
C. Winnie Saywah
Monrovia
In furtherance of its awareness and sensitization campaign on the understanding of the provisions of the existing laws on Gender Based Violence, the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL) has also opened an endowment fund to sustain victims of such humane crimes.
In her remarks at the third 'towns meeting' under the supervision of Atty. Esther Seton-Cee, AFELL's President, Dewey Gray said the Endowment fund sponsored by the Danish grant is to assist families to sustain victims to continue the court process.
Atty. Gray said the fund is set aside for the needs of real victims of SGBV whose families might have neglected them or have lost confidence in going any further in the long court processes or in life. She said some parents can not afford to keep those victims in schools due to the trauma therefore the fund is there to also offer them psycho-social support and to help them seek medical treatment whenever necessary.
The AFELL President called on men not to see this move as a way of putting them against women, instead they should get involved in taking the message out in order to help prevent the circle of SGBV.Atty. Gray further stated that it is only through their help that the association, all women and the entire society can succeed. She urged them to be partakers in giving their views to help the association and other partners arrive at a national policy on violence against women in society. She said in order to get such policy in full swing, men must see themselves as part of the law that would stop violence in the country pointing out that if that is not achieved together in the not too distance future, the nation would witness a whole country dying out and the economy dwindling due to unprotected SGBV.
She noted that to have a viable society wherein everyone could be protected under the laws, it takes collective efforts adding that the process only has to begin from somewhere. The towns meeting organized by AFELL in collaboration with the government of Denmark and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was held at the C. William Brumskine Elementary School on Front Street in Monrovia on Tuesday.Serving as one of the facilitators, the National Director of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, Augustine Toe speaking on the effects of GBV in communities and the victims, said abuse of one person affects an entire generation. Director Toe said those who based their judgment of rape on the dress code of girls or women are mad, adding that sex is the best thing that God ever made and it is only an animal that forces other species to mate.
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He said from the day of creation, people had lived together and not as persons living with the other as slaves therefore, men should be mindful that if they force a woman to have sex, it is either you transmit sickness or contract sickness that would lead to a greater effect on an entire generation.
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