Women Peacemakers programme launched in Ghana

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - A programme committed to empowering women through non-violent activities to promote cultures of peace, tolerance, inclusion and equality was launched on Thursday with a call for support from other women's groups and gender based organizations.

The programme dubbed; Women Peacemakers Programme (WPP), which is a sub-programme of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, a Netherlands-based peace organization, has among its major objectives to showcase Africa as a symbol of hope of peaceful co-existence. The theme of the WPP is: "Without peace, Development is Impossible and Without Women, Neither Peace nor Development Can Take Place." Ms Euphemia Akos Dzathor, Coordinator of WPP in Ghana, said in the next three years the programme would educate and train selected people in Africa in gender sensitive active non-violence activities to enable them to serve as peace trainers on the continent. "Over the past year, the Africa Regional Office of WPP has promoted gender sensitive non-violence activities in eight countries considered to be in dire need because of conflict situations in those regions," she said.

Other activities and programmes to be undertaken by the WPP Africa office based in Ghana would include supporting women civil society organizations to promote peace in the rural areas as well as exchanging and sharing best practices to lobby and advocate for peace in various African countries.

Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, who launched the programme, pointed out that gender equality was an integral part of achieving a peaceful society and commended WPP for complimenting governments' efforts at ensuring peace and security in Africa. "It is worth emphasizing also the role women can play in building peace especially at family and community levels due to their very important role as the 'first teachers and shapers of character,'" Hajia Mahama said.

She said in Ghana government was committed to promoting peace hence the establishment of a peace camp among many other efforts to help prevent conflicts, manage conflicts and ensure that people lived in respect and dignity. Hajia Mahama urged WPP to collaborate with government agencies and other NGOs to spread their wings wide enough to reach every corner of the continent since Africa needed peace.