2000 people engage in campaign against violence on women

Some 2,000 people comprising men, women and youths, groomed on breaking the chain of sexual violence against the women folk, have engaged efforts aimed at bringing perpetrators to book.

The information was made public by the Executive Director of the civil society group, Organisation for Gender Civic Engagement and Youth Development, OGCEYO, Elvis Wepngong, in Kumba, recently, during the third lap of a series of training workshops focused on eliminating sexual violence against women.

Speaking during the workshop on the campus of the Cameroon College of Art and Science, CCAS, Kumba, that brought together hundreds of students from schools across Kumba, Wepngong stated that the ongoing campaign to break the silence on sexual violence against women, targets some 2,400 persons.

He explained that those trained have been tagged “Junior Activists”, given that they are expected to return to their various groups, schools and professions and diffuse the message that sexual violence is punishable by law.

Wepngong explained that, very often, people complain of different forms of sexual violence, without knowing that there are institutions and laws put in place to sanction such acts. He said further that, with such training, stereotypes such as husbands beating their wives in the name of love will be arrested to build a better future for young generations.

According to Justice Vera Ngassa, nobody chooses to be a victim of sexual violence. She averred that there is need for concerted efforts from all strata of society to end all forms of sexual violence against women.

Ngassa pointed out the different forms of sexual violence, such as; ritual rape commonly perpetrated by ministers of religion and herbalists, rape by other members of the society, widowhood cleansing and forced marriages, as being punishable by the Criminal Procedure Code with jail terms ranging from 10 to 25 years in prison.

The Judge remarked that sexual violence is unspeakable at the level of homes, reason why the campaign is bent on causing people to speak out so that the cycle of continuous silence is brought to an end.

Statistics presented at the competition by Susan Faithful Ayuk, an official of the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family, indicate that over 600 women are victims of rape each year. Ayuk explained that the only solution to the issue of sexual violence is that it has to be stopped completely.

One of the Junior Activists, Rapha Ayuk, told The Post that he has gained deep knowledge on the different forms of sexual violence which people take for granted. The student activist explained that he now knows that things, such as; cyber pornography and obscene publications fall in the category of acts of sexual violence which he would educate his peers about the penalties and consequences involved.

Another activist, Virtuous Ayuk, stated that her major preoccupation would be to arrest the difficulties involved in ending sexual violence such as fear, stigmatisation and ignorance.