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26.08.2016 Regional News

 How Young People Are Solving The Violence Against Women Through Social Media

....Voilence Against Women In The Kariga, Kumbungu, Savelugu And Saboba Districts
26.08.2016 LISTEN
By Ato Ulzen-Appiah

TAMALE, Ghana – Recent reports from community journalists of the Hopin Academy in Tamale, clearly indicate the brutish way in which most of our women are being treated. These prejudices are particularly prevalent in the Kariga, Kumbungu, Savelugu, and Saboba districts.

Most of these reports tell the same story; our women are being subjected to harsh and inhumane conditions.

They’re being raped and beaten, they’re victims of forced and early marriages, victims of physical and verbal abuse, they’re being over-burdened with duties of both man and wife by their husbands; they’re expected to do their wifely duties and still go plough the land to bring food for their household, and even they’re being accused of witchcraft by their fellow woman. “I was nearly beaten to death by my husband” one woman recounted. “He beat me and tore off all my clothes just because I did not bring him food on time. He did not care that there were people watching, he did not even care that it was a taboo to beat me on the farm” This was an incidence that occurred at Kumbungu and many other similar stories from the other districts.

Various government organizations and NGO’s have risen up and spoken at length against these violent acts. “A lot more needs to be done” says McCarthy Lomotey co-founder of Hopin Academy, the newest addition to the ever growing list of social enterprises in Ghana. “These acts of violence against our women are barbaric and needs to be checked, we can individually help create a safer and more altruistic environment for our women to live a full, normal and long life”

This year Hopin Academy and its partners; RUMNET, YEFL and Ghana Friends in Denmark have launched the Youth Speak UP project to speak out against many of these social vices including the violence against women.

The goal of this project is to promote active participation of youth in rural communities through the use of social media and digital tools. The project focuses mainly on youth in some four deprived districts of Tamale, Northern Ghana; Kumbungu, Savelugu, Saboba and Karaga. Youth Speak Up will be holding both offline and online discussions on how to curb violence against women in the identified districts.

Both online and offline discussions will be held concurrently on 27th August 2016. Follow discussions on twitter/facebook using the hashtag - #YouthSpeakUp

Hopin Academy is a social enterprise based in Tamale, Northern Ghana that provides a privatized and more alternate approach to the educational system in Ghana. It provides training to individuals and organizations that are interested in marketing, design, film, communications and entrepreneurial work. The academy has established academic partnerships with many international institutions including, Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College to bring to its students a more globalized and diversified approach to learning.

For further information please contact; McCarthy Lomotey, Co-founder, Hopin Academy, E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.hopinacademy.org

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