Youth Rise International (YoRI) congratulates the Black Stars for great effort made yesterday for the 2-3 scoring line against Portugal in the on-going FIFA World Cup 2022. We are confident that the Black Stars will make Ghana proud by bringing the World Cup home. We solemnly stand in solidarity and wish all the players and technical team great success as we join the world to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women today.
However, it is very sad that today, “globally as many as 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners” according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Up to 70% women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their life-time – the majority by husbands, intimate partners or someone they now (UN Women). Women who are beaten by their partners are 48 % more likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, UNFPA & UNIFEM, 2004).
Statistics in Ghana indicate that 33-37% of women have ever experienced domestic violence in the form of intimate partner violence in their relationship (GSS/GHS et al, 2009). Even in schools, research has shown that 14% and 52% of girls are victims of sexual abuse and gender-based violence respectively. We agree that these estimates may be far more than what actually persists, as violence against women and girls remain a largely hidden problem. Also, there is empirical and field evidence that for women, physical violence during pregnancy is associated with maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity.
Youth Rise International (YoRI) calls on all partners – the married and those dating in Ghana to desist from all forms of violence against women and girls. Because we have discovered through our grassroots engagements that when there is IPV in a family, the children are the worst affected. Also, children who are raised in families or homes where IPV is rife grow up to perpetrate violence.
These have been validated in several studies which identifies the roots cause of VAWG to include but not limited to individual factors (young age, heavy drinking, depression, low income, witnessing or experiencing violence as a child), relationship factors (marital conflict, marital instability, economic stress, poor family functioning) and community factors (poverty, weak community sanctions against VAWG)
Youth Rise International (YoRI) is a legally registered and government-licensed youth-led, non-partisan grassroots and advocacy NGO that empowers the very poor, vulnerable, marginalized, socially-excluded and minority groups to break the cycle of extreme poverty and promotion of stronger families. Today, we have directly impacted the lives of over 170,000 youth, women, men, boys and girls across Ghana.
In solidarity,
