Violence against women still exists

Ms Christian Churcher, Minister of State Responsible for Primary, Secondary and Girls-child Education, said on Thursday that violence, particularly against women and girl-children, continues to exist although a lot of awareness has been raised about it.

The most prevalent form of violence usually manifests in sexual offences such as rape, defilement and physical offences including assault and battery, she said at the launch of a 120-page manual for guidance and counselling in Accra. It is titled "Working with survivors of gender-based violence".

Ms Churcher said such offences happen because they are rooted in and supported by socio-cultural, traditional and religious institutions, which compel the people to view them as normal.

The manual was developed by the Crises Response Centre -Women's Initiative for Self Empowerment (CRC-WISE), a centre set up to provide support and services to women and children in the community who have been battered, abandoned, harassed or victimised.

It is part of a project dubbed counselling and management for survivors of gender-based violence meant to train counsellors and service providers about gender-based violence and violence against children.

Ms Churcher said as counsellors, they are to help the victim, adding: "It is important to note that the victim you are counselling must take responsibility for her decisions. You cannot suffer for her if things go wrong, so you must not make her decisions for her.

"We owe it a duty to our society and our motherland, not only to counsel victims of violence, but also to fight to make sure that these heinous crimes are not only done away with or put into history but that the perpetrators of the crime are dealt with rigorously by the law."

Ms Angela K Obeng, a trainee clinical psychologist at the University of Ghana, said because of the psychological effect of the abuse it is good for such people to be counselled to reduce their plight.

This would help normalise the victims' emotional reactions and encourage them to talk about their feelings.

She said research has shown that victims who go through counselling exhibit lower levels of depression