Abuse Relief Corps, a non-governmental organization, has disclosed that 131 sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) cases have been recorded in Ghana between October 2020 and March 2021.
The Executive Director of the NGO, Anthony Boateng Bediako disclosed this at a day’s workshop held in Accra recently.
The workshop was aimed at bringing stakeholders together to find ways and means to address issues related to SGBV and get victims to be bold to report such crimes to appropriate authorities.
“We started in this project in October and when we met about a month ago, our data showed that we had worked on about 69 cases but right now we have done about 131 cases and the vast majority are females but then about 10 or fewer are boys,” he stated.
On her part, a Deputy clinical psychologist of the Ledzokuku Municipal Assembly Hospital, Mrs. Charlotte Meyers mentioned that although victims of such crimes find it difficult to report to authorities, statistics show that reported cases of abuse keep increasing by the day.
She attributed it to the lack of counsellors and clinical psychologists in many government hospitals a situation she explained is thumping the care and support victims should have access to and appealed to consider employing more clinical psychologists and certified counsellors to address the situation.
“We have a lot of counsellors, but the issue is with employment. The governmental institutions do not have enough counsellors and psychologists there. I will appeal to the government to look into it and try and employ a lot of clinical psychologists who can help in case management.”
The Greater Accra Regional Girls’ Education Officer, Madam Christiana Azure Ayinzoya mentioned that if they get a platform where they could coordinate, it could help.
“Sometimes you will get a sexual abuse issue and where to get medical attention is a problem. DOVVSU would have to come in before you can get medical attention.”
The one-day workshop which was organized by Abuse Relief Corps in collaboration with the United Nations International children’s emergency fund, UNICEF brought together various stakeholders within the sector to get a better understanding of how to properly coordinate SGBV cases to ensure adequate care and justice for victims