Sierra Leone Women to Launch Violence-Free Elections Campaign

By Abu Bakarr Munu

July 9 2007 - (Awareness Times) Women in Peace and Security Network-Africa (WIPSEN-Africa) in collaboration with the Grass roots Empowerment for Self Reliance (GEMS) with support from UNIFEM-Sierra Leone will on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 draw women from civil society organizations (CSOs) across the country in Bo to officially launch a mass advocacy violence-free elections campaign, starting on Wednesday, July 11.

The National Coordinator for GEMS, Madam Barbara Bangura disclosed over the weekend that the rational for the advocacy campaign is to ensure that women, whom she referred to as "key actors", are able to exercise their civic rights to participate in the electoral process without suffering from any form of violence.

She said it was also to mobilize women from the various organisations in order to educate them and help them make informed decisions.

"The campaign is an all women affair," she stated, adding that it is going to be led and implemented solely by women. She described the women of Sierra Leone as the peacekeepers for the August 11, 2007 elections. Barbara also disclosed that come August 11, they will be joined by other women peace network from neighboring Liberia called the Liberia Women Peace Train (LWPT) to give moral support and show solidarity with their counterparts in Sierra Leone.

WIPSEN-Africa in partnership with GEMS, a couple of days ago held a one day consultative meeting at the Hill Valley Hotel with a number of women organisations to map out modalities as to their role in the monitoring of the August 11 elections. The aimed was to create awareness among women civil society organizations on voter education and violence-free elections, so as to encourage their full participation in the monitoring process. The consultations also identified hot spots which might need their intervention and determined the existing capacities of women organizations for deployment in potential violent areas across Salone.

From:http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20055945.shtml