West Point Women for Health and Development Organization, a local group has concluded two days seminar on Sexual and Gender-based Violence in the township.
The seminar brought together participants from both genders and focused on ending all forms of social norms, including domestic violence against women.
Speaking to reporters briefly after the close of the seminar in Monrovia, the group’s Executive Director, Madam Nelly Cooper said, the exercise was geared at adequately informing participants about the important role each partner play in a relationship.
The forum was sponsored by the European Union through SPI, working with both genders in training them to put a complete end to all forms of sexual, gender, and domestic violence.
“It is our hope that at the end of this training, participants will learn how to engage each other in a relation, where each partner will understand its role and at the same time help to end domestic violence, which is mostly perpetrated by men.
“We are doing all we can to enlighten the minds of the males than females are not slaves in a relationship, but partners who need all the necessary support to make them the women they ought to be”, she said.
Madam Cooper disclosed that participants were excited and willingly shared their individual experiences while promising to practicalize the knowledge acquired for the betterment of their lives.
She said though a majority of the participants blamed the increased wave of violence in the country on men’s inability to exercise restraint in relationships, with the knowledge gained, male counterparts admitted to the reality of sometimes committing the act either knowingly or unknowingly.
Also speaking, participants thanked Madam Cooper and her team for organizing the event and promised to use the knowledge acquired for positive change.
Most of the participants spoken to after the training said, the exercise has helped them realize various mistakes in their individual lives and they are now willing to learn from them in order to become better partners in relationships.
