Singida — Community here has been asked to rebuke and raise their voices against various acts of gender based violence as one of the methods to end the vices.
The call was made at the Kibaoni Primary School by Consultant, Mr Tumainiel Mangi during a one day awareness training on acts of gender based violence for religious leaders and out of school youths from Kindai Ward in Singida Municipality, organized by a non-governmental organization, Empower Society Transform Lives (ESTL).
Mr Mangi noted that if the community will keep quiet, then it will mean it has accepted the evil actions to go on.
He, however, said if the community will decide to report the vices, the whistleblowers are advised to send the information to the right authorities so that appropriate measures can be taken against the suspect.
"Many times when we see these evil actions taking place in the vicinity, we end up telling people who cannot take legal action instead of sending the information right away to the relevant authorities" he said adding;
"Giving information alone is not enough. The whistleblower must also have the courage to testify in court so that justice can be done. Many times we witness suspects being arrested but after a short time they are released due to lack of sufficient evidence".
He said that in order to stop all forms of gender based violence, society has to get rid of fear, avoid protecting each other and dislike corruption because such actions favour the accused and leave a permanent scar on the victim of the said violence.
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Kindai Ward Education Officer, Ms Nanginyi Mollel said in order to deal fully with all forms of gender based violence, the youth must sacrifice themselves by exposing such cruel acts.
She further urged parents to be close to their children, saying as of now children have become too free, causing them to engage in bad activities without their parents knowledge.
Social Community Development Officer from Singida Municipality, Ms Salma Charles asked the youth to change their behaviours by doing legitimate jobs in order to earn their own incomes instead of staying idle at the jobless corners or roaming in the streets.
She wondered why many Singida girls prefer going to big cities to seek domestic jobs. Then asked; "does a domestic worker necessarily have to come from Singida? Don't you have jobs here to do? If you really know that you are the tomorrow's nation and you still sit idly, what kind of nation will that be?".
She called on the youth to go to the Singida Municipality to take loans that will enable them do income generating activities noting that when one has no income, it is easy for him/ her to be persuaded to do anything unpleasant.
Religious leaders advised that provision of better education for children should start at the family level, children should be brought up on the basis of religious values and parents should not "abandon" their children under the pretext of being too busy.
