Women in rural Liberia are encouraged to actively advocate for their own rights if the drive to curb discrimination against them women must succeed.

Acting Executive Director of the Zorzor District Women Care (ZODWOCA), Momo G. Kollie, told the women that they have great potentials to change their communities, and urged them to get fully involved in supporting and promoting their wellbeing.

He said in the past, women were marginalized in the Liberian society because of their failure to speak out on issues that affected their lives and social wellbeing.

"Because of this, coupled with our antique practices, your underestimated potentials have been hidden, but a new day has dawned in our country and now you have the power to change things," he told an audience of 50 community leaders, mostly women in Voinjama City when ZODWOCA launched its second quarter phase of human rights project in Voinjama District.

The participants who were drawn from seven towns in Bondi Clan comprised of 35 women leaders and 15 males, among them town chiefs, elders and youth leaders.

The program, which was held on June 6, 2008 followed by sensitization and advocacy workshop the next day, was intended to educate the rural residents on the importance of their human rights and their role in sustaining a democratic society.

Mr. Kollie told the gathering that the intention of ZODWOCA, with full support from the Notational Endowment for Democracy, an American organization, is to strengthen the advocacy capacity of rural women and to sensitize them on their participation in local and national politics.

Mr. Kollie said women must not look down upon themselves anymore as it was in the past because the entire world has changed.

"Today the world is gender sensitive; therefore, you (women) have a voice than ever in the past, so you have the potentials to speak and something positive happens," he noted.

The acting ZODWOCA boss also urged the rural people coexist and live in peace, giving the fact that there are more than six ethnic groups in Lofa County, Voinjama city being the capital.

He said there was need for the Lormas and Mandingos ethnic groups to reunite and dialogue on how to resolve the conflict between them bordering on property rights, religion, and intermarriages.

The town chief of Selaga, one of the participating towns, Arthur M. Zumo, commended ZODWOCA for taking its rights project to the "common people who are forgotten to open our eyes."

Hoping that the exercise continue in the area, Chief Zumo said this is the first time we are getting such important information that tells us that our women have the power to do great things to change our communities.

The workshop treated topics including fundamental rights in the Liberian constitution, new legal protections against gender-based violence, defending rape victims in local courts, protection against domestic violence, and women's leadership promotion.

The workshops used group exercises, formal presentations, discussions and exchanges of personal experiences. Workshop facilitators included religious leaders, human rights specialists, community women's leaders, and ZODWOCA staff.

The first phase of the project was launched in March in Voinjama city targeting more than 40 participants from several other towns. Each of the clans in the district will benefit from the project until the entire Voinjama District is covered as done with Zorzor District last year.