WAJU ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
By Isaac Essel

December 10, 2003 – (Accra Mail - Accra) The Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU), a specialized unit within the Ghana Police Service, has organized a series of "activism outreach" programme to stem the rate of violence meted out to women and children in the country.

Inspector Elvis Sadongo, Programme Coordinator and Public Relation Officer of WAJU, stated that WAJU has realized that, majority of cases at the unit are recorded during Christmas. The programme has been necessitated by the Yuletide being around the corner.

Insp. Elvis Sadongo was speaking when the programme was taken to the Used Cloth Sellers Association at Kantamanto in Accra yesterday. The campaign is being assisted by the Women Initiative for Self Empowerment (WISE).

He said Christmas has been noted to be an escalating point in violence because many people take advantage of the festivity to get drunk and misbahve and thus meting out all manner of assaults on children and women.

Insp. Sadongo cautioned the public, especially women and children to be careful about the kind of people they go out with during the Christmas.

Corporal Grace Bandoh, who took her time to explain the work of the unit to the sellers, called on the public to report any case of violence to WAJU for them to take action, adding "we do not demand money before solving any problem."

She said WAJU was estabilished in 1998 to respond to the increasing number of cases involving abuse and violence against women and children.

She enumerated some of the functions of the unit as, investigating all female and children related cases, handling cases involving domestic violence, cases of child abuse and cases of child delinquency.

Miss Bandoh appealed to men to respect the rights of women and refrain from subjecting them to beatings, as no law in the world permits that.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200312100687.html