Women urged to help maintain peace during election

Members of the Our Lady of Mercy (OLAM) Kaana Manga Women Association have embarked on a peace march in the Navrongo Township to create awareness on the need for peace in this election period.

The peace march was also aimed at drawing the attention of all women in the country to use their influential abilities at home to convince their sons and husbands to eschew acts that could lead to violence.

Speaking to the women after the march, Mrs Victoria Asuliwono said women have the ability to help ensure peace if they chose to do so.

She said God has endowed women with the gift of patience, love and compassion and other influential attributes and urged all Ghanaian women to use such attributes to help maintain peace in the coming election.

“You must be reminded that as Ghanaian women, in times of violence it is us and our children who suffer the most. With the few days left for the election it is very crucial for all of us as women to play an important role by educating our families, communities and Ghanaians in general to stay away from violence”, she said.

Mrs Asuliwono appealed to men and the youth to refrain from utterances and negative acts that has the tendency to jeopardize peace and stability of the country.

Mr Emmanuel Atiga, the Project Director of OLAM, said his outfit in collaboration with Kaana Manga Women’s Group with sponsorship from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA ), organised the event to build the capacity of the women and to remind them on their role in peace making.

He said in order to help contribute to ensuring peaceful election OLAM in collaboration with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has built the capacity of the women in peace building

The event held on the theme: “Empowering Women as Agents for Peace towards 2016 general election”, attracted many women and the youth.

They carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Conflicts slow down development’, ‘Stop Abusive Language’, ‘Ghana, our piece, our pride’, ‘Women are Peace Ambassadors’, among others.

Mr James Brown Fankey ,the Kassena Nankana Municipal Director of Social Welfare and Community Development, who received the group on behalf of Dr Stanislaus Alu Kandingdi , the Municipal Chief Executive, after their peace march lauded the effort of the group.

He said Ghana was one country and nothing should be done to mar the current peace in the country and expressed optimism that with the support of the Ghanaian women, the election would be conducted peacefully.

Our Lady of Mercy (OLAM) Kaana Manga Women Association on route match for peaceful election in the Navrongo Municipality