Sekondi-Ghana, May 15, GNA – Members of the Essential Service Package Committee in the Western Region have been taken through a two-day training on issues of gender-based violence and counselling techniques.
The training which formed part of a UNFPA project implemented by the Western Regional Coordinating Council was to enable key stakeholders in that area to become knowledgeable and effectively handle such cases.
Ms. Maribel Aikins, of the Attorney General’s Department took the participants through identification, challenges and solutions to issues hampering successful prosecution of Sexual and Gender Based Violence cases.
She noted the key role played in prosecution and the need for stakeholders to abide by this and collect the needed exhibits in case of prosecution.
Ms Aikins also said consent given by minors and children under 12 were not recognised by the law and warned perpetrators of that.
She also educated participants on home holder arrest and the need for parents and households who oversee such crimes to be prosecuted.
Mrs. Vida Badu Oppong, the Western Regional Clinical Psychologist took them through counselling techniques and educated that counselling was not just an advice but a process of interaction to explore and understand a situation and offered quality alternatives.
The process, she said, called for actions on the part of the counselee to take actions that resolved problems and change behaviours.
The Psychologist made the participants aware that counselling was not interrogation or confession but interactions to gather information for proper alternatives.
She therefore encouraged the participants to be good listeners, empathetic, have integrity and respect as well as being genuine in their dealings.
