Wednesday, September 03, 2008 City’s women empowered
WITH records showing that six out of 10 women are battered by their partners, a four-day Gender Sensitivity (GS) Training was held among Gender and Development (GAD) focal persons of Cebu City’s barangays.
Teresa Fernandez, executive director of Lihok Pilipina Foundation Inc. and executive chairperson of Cebu City Women’s and Family Affairs Commission, conducted the lecture recently at the Cebu Business Hotel in Cebu City.
The training was aimed at empowering the workers of the city’s GAD program to gradually make local government officials gender-sensitive.
Among the participants were from the north district barangays of Apas, Banilad, Tinago, Mabolo, Luz and Sambag II and the south district barangays of Basak Pardo, Punta Princesa, Calamaba, Duljo-Fatima, Inayawan and Pahina San Nicolas.
The training began with a brief report on the domestic violence cases from the barangay’s GAD focal persons. Among the domestic violence cases cited was the suppression of the women’s voice in the decision-making in the home.
Meanwhile, Ruth Medrano, the GAD focal person of Barangay Basak Pardo, said the reason that women are hesitant and compromising is the fear of being left by their husbands.
Since one of the aims of the training is to gradually eliminate gender insensitivity and abuses among Cebuano women, “one way of arousing women’s interest to participate in the campaign is by educating them,” said Teresa Manlapaz, GS trainer and a Lupon Tagapamayapa member of Barangay Basak Pardo.
In the campaign, she said GAD focal persons should discuss issues related to gender-based abuses on women.
The misconception that domestic violence is merely a “family trouble” or a private affair must also be eliminated to end domestic violence, said a battered wife from Barangay Basak Pardo who gave her testimony.
“We can only be effective in utilizing our learning if we can properly educate women about their rights. If they are properly educated, they will know how to respond to domestic violence,” a GAD focal person who attended the training said. (Joselito C. Manabat, UPVCC Mass Comm)
