The Ark Foundation, Ghana has launched a documentary outlining its services for abused women and children.
The documentary highlights the group's activities, projects and programmes that support
victims and survivors of sexual and gender based violence.
The foundation is an advocacy-based human rights, non-governmental, and non-profit
organisation, whose primary purpose is to seek the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and children.
"The idea for the documentary is to bring to the attention of members of the public the various support services, which are on offer at the Foundation and to enable them to seek help in times of crisis. We hope through the documentary the services of The Ark would be accessible to the general public,especially victims and survivors of sexual and gender based violence," Mrs Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, Executive Director of the Ark Foundation, said.
The launch brought together journalists, corporate bodies, donors and network partners to
acquaint themselves with the work and the services of The Ark by viewing the documentary.
Mrs Dwamena-Aboagye said the Ark had for the past 10 years provided refuge and strength through advocacy, training, public education and service delivery.
The organisation runs a shelter where women seek refuge when battered and when referred from other agencies including the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and the International Federation of Women Lawyers.
Beneficiaries of the shelter included spousal abuse survivors, women fleeing from harmful traditional / religious practices such as early or forced marriage, survivors of sexual assault -rape, defilement and incest.
Mrs Dwamena-Aboagye said although the effects of domestic violence are serious -
physically, psychologically, and economically - not many women were prepared to report such incidents because of societal pressures and lack of knowledge of the options opened to them.
'Most Ghanaian women prefer that their husbands and family members are not jailed, but
rather (receive) an order to stop (the perpetrators) from abusing them," she said.
A quarterly report released by the Accra office of DOVVSU showed that for the first
quarter of this year (January -March) a total of 1,332 cases were handled, compared to a total of 1,256 cases reported in 2008.
The figure showed an increase of 76 cases.
Women continue to dominate as victims of domestic violence, even though more men try to put bashfulness aside and report cases of their wives beating them.
Cases ranked high with a figure of 584 as at the end of March as against the 552 recorded in 2008.