Grand Gedeh – Zwedru city was a scene of attraction when a women movement the Women Platform of Grand Gedeh with Support from YOCEL and Funding from OXFAM Liberia hosted for the second time since the establishment of the Country, Women and Girls Colloquium, the colloquium brought together over (150) women leaders, youth groups, students, local county authority, former representative candidate, women wing leaders and male champions from the eight administrative districts they all converged in Zwedru City, Grand Gedeh County.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, on Monday, August 20, 2018 Mr. Davison Bardee serving as proxy from the office of the County Superintendent said Violence against Women in Grand Gedeh is a sticky issue and parents should not compromise rape cases and this is a stigmatic problem that should be handle with dignity and the victim should be protected, in closing he mentioned that the future of a girl child is equivalent to the future of the entire county and women’s issue are issue that should matter to all.
Also speaking in a brief remark the development superintendent Madam Betty Breeze Doh expressed her delight in the women platform and YOCEL for organizing the colloquium it’s a dream come true for the county, all can’t be happening in Monrovia our women on this side deserve such a unique and capacity building initiative.
She also spoke about women building synergies and standing up for each other and encouraged the women to focus on the training and asked all of the hard questions and at the end the women should go back in their respective community to share with other women what they will learned from the next 4 days, everyone will not have the same opportunity to be here so if you’re here grip something go back and share with others.
Also making brief remark Lisa Kindervater, Technical Advisor and Gender Specialist of OXFAM – Liberia added that gender matter is a matter that should concerned each and every one of us and it should be inclusive of men and boys, social norms and stereotyping are also contributing factors, she finally disclosed that more will be tough the next day.
The women and girls colloquium lasted for five (5) days which commence on August 19 – 23, 2018. It’s a platform that highlight women political participation, violence against women and girls and included all stakeholders with expertise in different areas which include: advocacy, gender norms and masculinity, national, sub regional and regional instruments that protect the right of women, court proceeding, case reporting and the hindering of victims survivals from the health facility to the police and the court. The colloquium was resourceful and Lisa Kindervater did extremely well by facilitating most of the sessions.
Connecting all of the though, one intriguing aspect of the colloquium was the power of the story the women were so involved into the session and it was participatory, speaking to some of the young women and girls after that session they was so impressed with the personal story that was told by the panelists and these are things that have inspire them to motivate other.
Speaking with anonymity a young girl reveal that she was left out of the list from the Grand Gedeh Youth Association but was able to talk to the organizer for her to sit in the program “saying, this is what I was going to missed Jesus thank God I am here at least when I leave from here I will go in my community to talk to some of my friends ‘’ don’t tell anybody here that you interview me ya.
At the Climax of the conference the women platform together with participants from the eight administrative districts including town and clan chiefs agreed and developed a resolution from the colloquium and the resolution took into consideration all of the major issues that confronting the advancement of women and girls in the county some provision with in the resolution was directly for the County authority implementation while many was directed to the women platform for implementation with support from YOCEL.