The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has set up a one-stop centre in Accra that provides free holistic services to survivors of gender-based violence (GBV).
Within the one-stop centre is a clinic and laboratory that runs full clinic and laboratory services at no cost to survivors of GBV.
Also within the same building is a district and circuit court, shelter, social welfare and clinical psychologists who offer help to survivors.
The National Coordinator of DOVVSU, Ghana Police Service, ACP Owusuwaa Kyeremeh, disclosed this at a panel interview organised as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIFA Ghana).
Other members of the panel were the President of FIDA Ghana, Gloria Ofori Boadu, and a judge of the Circuit Court GBV) in Kumasi, Her Honour Nana Adwoa Dua-Adonteng.
Survivors interview
Ms Kyeremeh said aside from these, they had moved away from the open space of interviewing survivors where everybody could hear them when they speak.
“We’ve created a simple interview room where the individual sits for an interview and the good thing about that space is that we have set up a system where I can sit in my office and watch what goes on in the interview room.
The medical doctor can also do the same.
The idea is to prevent secondary victimisation so that they don’t need to repeat the story when they come to my office or go to the medical doctor,” she explained.
In addition to all these, she said they purchase medication for the survivors and have set up a separate room for interviews with children in eight regions of the country.
Done with support from UNICEF, ACP Kyeremeh described the children’s interview room as being like a creche, with a playful environment which allowed the children brought there to feel comfortable talking to them about their situation.
She appealed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, as well as Regional Coordinating Councils, to support DOVVSU in establishing one-stop centres in their jurisdictions so that survivors of GBV in their jurisdictions would not have to travel to Accra to seek free medical services.
Sodomy
Her Honour Dua-Adonteng said cases of parents defiling or sodomising their sons were on the rise nowadays, adding that they have a lot of such cases.
“We have husbands sodomising their wives, and in such a situation, the challenge is not the conventional sexual abuse, but sodomy, and you have to look at the laws, because the laws do not conventionally cover sodomy, for example, of the wife. It considers the rape of a woman,” she said.
She expressed concern about how often cases were sent to the police station many months after the incident had happened, especially those involving children who were unable to report.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
