The current events of the Police Month started Monday’s second week with a focus on increasing consciousness of gender-based violence and teenage pregnancy.
Officials said GBV incidents are still comparatively high, and awareness comes to inform local leaders and the general public about the frequency of the vice to guarantee that all segments are responsive to the issue.
The campaign’s first day concentrated on training grassroots leaders to respond to violence based on sex and gender, as well as teenage pregnancy.
While talking in Burera District, the Commissioner for Community Police (CP) Bruce Munyambo, informed a meeting of local government and community officials that GBV is harmful to societies ‘ growth.
He also castigated the backwardness of traditional ways that influence growth, such as early marriage and male chauvinism.
“First of all, society needs to develop to understand the disadvantages of these actions. We need community-based campaigns to empower all sections of the public about these issues through trainings, social gatherings, churches, education – all these stakeholders should be fully involved in this. Police alone cannot do it,” Munyambo told the gathering in Burera district.
Specifically against females and kids, he clarified countless health implications of domestic violence. “Some are psychological or emotional in nature and may sometimes result in ill-health,” he underscored.
Speaking in the district of Karongi, police commissioner John Bosco Kabera, the spokesperson for the Rwandan National Police reiterated the hazards of GBV and child violence.
Kabera encouraged leaders to join forces with law enforcers to recognize disturbed families by early conflict detection in order to reconcile them before they become violent.
“We call for your ownership and partnership in raising awareness in your communities to discourage these practices – these are issues we need to educate the communities about, so that they refrain from taking matters in their own hands, and allow the rule of law deal with others,” he said.
Police Commissioner Dr. Daniel Nyamwasa said to Gisagara District inhabitants in the Southern Province that there are well-established anti-violence laws in particular and others specific to females and children’s safety.
He clarified that rulers must come out publicly to denounce the lawlessness and empower societies on the scourge and their rights with relevant knowledge and understanding.
There was agreement during the training that there is an urgent need for civic education to challenge obsolete cultural methods of sexual and gender-based violence in Rwanda.