19 Nov 2013

The increasing rate of gender based violence costs the government a lot of money and reduces productivity, director of gender affairs department, Ms Valencia Mogegeh has said.

Briefing the media during  launch of the16 days of activism against violence on women and children in Francistown, Ms Mogegeh said government ended up spending a lot of money in treating the injuries that happen during ther violence,

She said such pervasive violence had great economic costs for the society as a lot of money, which could have been used for developments, was spent on dealing with the effects of violence.

Ms Mogegeh explained that the greatest cost to society lied in the loss of many women and girls’ ability to reach to their full potential, which she added had serious implications for the human development.

She explained that the launch was a way of promoting awareness and sensitizing the public on issues affecting women and children. Ms Mogegeh said through the activism, her department will carry a huge responsibility to ensure that effective strategies to eliminate gender based violence emerge out of the campaign.

She noted that her department will continue to identify and to fight gender based violence for the sake of many women and children who have suffered and perished at the hands of their abusers.

The director stated that individuals and the community should ask themselves what is being done to address the scourge of violence. “We also need to look at what is it that other sectors can do to support government efforts to eliminate gender based violence specially targeted at women and children,” she said.

She called on the public to effectively address violence against women and children by building strategic linkages and strong partnerships with women`s groups and communities.

Ms Mogegeh said they should engage men and dikgosi who are cultural gatekeepers as well as service sectors such as health, education and businesses. For her part, Project Concern International Director, which is an organization formed to address issues on gender based violence, Ms Dorothy Tlagae said gender based violence brings impact on family, community and further tears the nation apart.

She said because of these impacts, the way people are supposed to relate with each other changes and they end up behaving likes animals as evidenced by the horrific things they do to one another.

To address this violence, Ms Tlagae said their organization in conjunction with the civil society and local authorities have come up with campaigns. However she noted that to avoid fighting a losing battle, issues of gender violence should be concretely dealt with at family level and communication among family members is the key. Ends