The 16 days campaign to bring to end to gender based violence has been launched in Gulu district today.
The Campaign which coincided with the day for international day for elimination of violence against woman was launched this morning with street march which started from the District headquarters across the town.
Domestic violence still widespread in Uganda
Mary Ejang, a Lecturer at Gulu University and GBV Activist told press briefing in the morning that Gender Based Violence still remains a big problem to the country.
Ejang said 77% women in Uganda have experienced gender based violence especially in the households.
This year National theme for the campaign is GBV and Institutional Response: what is your Role? And the Slogan adopted in Gulu is” We can Stop GBV! Do Your Part”. The anti GBV campaign is focusing on roles and responsibilities of the security actors to contribute to prevention and the response efforts.
Ejang told journalist during the “we can Stop GBV”, that there are some men who suffer from the same but they fear to report the case because of culture which takes it as taboo for a man to report being beaten or mistreated by a woman.
She called upon men who equally suffer from the same to come out so that they can be helped because if men are not involved in this campaign, GBV will continue.
Statistic from Gulu Central Police Station indicates there are many cases of GBV in the region and little attention has been taken to address the vice.
Police officer from CPS John Ocan said police work on cases of GBV has been overshadowed by lack of transport and police surgeons to work cases of rape and defilement.
Gulu district Council recently approved a standard operating procedure for GBV Prevention and response that outlines the roles and responsibilities of different actors.
Meanwhile OXFARM and ACCORD the partners of Gulu Local government today also launched a campaign dubbed as “We can Stop all Violence Against Women” campaign.
The Campaign which rolled out form Kampala has been expanded to other urban districts like Kasese and after Gulu it will be in West Nile.
By Chowoo Willy