Some twenty-two individuals comprising market executives and representatives of some selected institutions have been trained as paralegals at the Kojokrom market in the Western Region.
The two-day training organised by the Domestic Violence Secretariat of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in collaboration with the United Nation’s Population Fund, sought to sensitize and empower them on violence-related issues.
In an interview with the media, the Director of Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit, DOVVSU Secretariat of the Ministry of Gender, Malonin Asibi said the main rationale behind the training was to create awareness and also bring their services closer to the ordinary Ghanaian.
According to her, they believe that when people have advocates or intermediaries among them they will feel more comfortable in reporting issues of domestic violence, child abuse and other social issues among others.
Madam Asibi said the paralegals were trained on basic laws, the domestic violence act and the children’s act among others.
“The rational is to create more awareness and to bring services much closer to the public concerning issues of gender based violence, child abuse, domestic violence and other social issues. There are six market with paralegals in Accra so we decided to move out of Accra and to replicate same in other regions.
We’ve given selected market executives and some government institutions some two day training in the basic laws. We chose the market because, the market is a populated area where people have such issues. Women can feel more comfortable with sharing their problems to fellow women and that is why we made such a move,” she stated.
The Western Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Maribel Akuorkor Okine said the paralegals were outdoored as part of the launch to the market for women and individuals for easy accessibility and facilitation on legal issues in line with domestic violence.
According to her, this will enable the market women and the public to know where to go with such issues.
” We have hosted the domestic violence secretariat to train some individuals from the market and state institutions to paralegals for the region. We outdoored them today for everybody to know the various executives who have been trained, so they can know where to go for their problems to get addressed,” She added.
