By Denish Ongora (denish.ongora@vol.co.ug)
Lira
Justice, Law and Order Sector have joined forces with civil servants and journalists in the fight against Sexual and Gender Based Violence-SGBV which is rampant in Lango.
A total of 34 participants including the journalists, community based civil servants, police officers , prison warders, officer from directorate of public prosecution and a representative of a faith based organizations were passed out on Friday at the office of the state attorney after undergoing two weeks training on the mitigation of SGBV at Pauline Hotel-Lira.
During the training the participants who were drawn from five districts of Northern Uganda were made to come up with a change project as strategy to fight against SGBV.
Peace Bridget Apio a journalist at Voice of Lango said she intends to sensitize men to encourage them to also begin reporting violence inflicted on them by their female spouses.
Radio Wa affiliated journalist Steward Bua said they learnt skills that will help him to identify victims of sexual and gender based violence by physical sight, listening and also finding ways of supporting them during the course of journalism.
Adero Jentrix of radio Hot FM Amolatar said she will de-campaign teenage pregnancy which is on the rise in Amolatar and Lango as a sub region using her “change project”.
North Kyoga police spokesperson Jimmy Patrick Okema who also participated in the training said they learnt how to settle handle SGBV cases through sympathetic interaction and threat free discussion.
Project director of Sexual and Gender Based Violence rights and justice course for the Justice, Law and order sector, the Associate Professor Dr. Auma Okwany asked the participants and the public to do the little they can to curb down SGBV and collectively she said change will be eminent.
Resident City Commissioner Lira Egole Lawrence warned police for delaying to respond to the scenes of crime especially when a violent act is reported.
Egole said women and children suffer most as a result of SGBV and this deters women from participating effectively in productive activities.
Under the STEPS FOR JLOS project, the Justice, law and order Sector with support from international donors have established SGBV training centre in Lira University.
Recently, Lango experienced a series of SGBV cases which caused loss of lives as well as injuries.
