The Upper West Regional Department of Gender (DoG) has appealed for support from development partners and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to manage a shelter for survivors of Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) in Wa.

The shelter, named 'Jinsung Shelter for Survivors of SGBV,' currently managed by the DoG, served as a safe haven for survivors of SGBV while the necessary interventions were taken to seek justice for them as well as to reintegrate them into their families.

Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the DoG, who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa, said the facility was currently supported by a one-year Global Fund project to provide feeding and financial assistance to the survivors at the shelter.

She explained that the fund supported the department to pay for the police medical form and examination of victims of rape or defilement and the transportation cost of a survivor who had to be commuting from a certain distance to court.

'Honestly, the shelter has been of great support to us in terms of our work as a department and also serves as a relief to the survivors of the SGBV because, for some of them, this safe haven gives them the opportunity to rebuild.

To rebuild because it is not just about keeping them there and feeding them, they also receive counselling at the shelter, which goes a long way to reduce their trauma and gives them some sort of hope that all is not lost,' she explained.

She added that they also provided skills training such as dressmaking and pastries making as well as start-up kits and capital for some survivors at the shelter to enable them to earn a living after they had been re-integrated into their families.

The DoG Regional Boss, however, expressed worry about how to fund the shelter after the Global Fund project ended saying, 'We are looking for other partners to come and support us so that we can sustain it.'

The Jinsung Shelter for Survivors of SGBV in Wa was one of four shelters in the country - two in the Greater Accra Region and one in the Eastern Regions - to provide support to people, especially women and girls who had suffered one form of SGBV or the other.

It was established by ActionAid Ghana, in partnership with the Wa Municipal Assembly and the Upper West Regional DoG about six years ago to, among other things, prevent community interference in the prosecution of SGBV cases.

That followed a defilement case from the Sissala East Municipality, which faced a lot of interference from the community in its prosecution coupled with the cost of transporting the victim from the community to Wa for court hearings.

That informed the need for the DoG and ActionAid Ghana, which was the main partner in the prosecution of that case to relocate the victim to Wa to avoid further interference from the community in the prosecution process.

Madam Batuure said the shelter currently housed about six survivors including those of child marriage, marriage by abduction and human trafficking.

She explained that the shelter managed cases from across the country citing cases received from the Upper East, Ashanti, and Eastern Regions, which they successfully managed as a testament to the impact of the shelter on the survivors of SGBV and the need to help sustain it.

Source: Ghana News Agency