Under the project titled,”Building the Capacity of Village Elders to Prevent and Appropriately Respond to Gender Based Violence”, CEEC with support from GIZ/CPS carried out a four days’ training of Murang’a Village Elders. 34 elders drawn from Githumu and Ithiru locations participated in the training which took place at Ng’araria Catholic Church, Kandara from 26th-29thJanuary 2016.
The main objective of the training was to strengthen the capacity of the Village Elders to prevent Gender Based Violence and appropriately respond to it when it occurs. This is in view of the fact that the elders are the government’s representatives at the lowest level and they are the ones that cases of gender based violence are first reported to. By the end of the training, the elders realized how culture greatly influenced their work, making them biased against women and vowed to let go of the unhelpful cultural beliefs and practices. They also got to understand the different forms of gender based violence as well as the difference between civil and criminal cases. They realized that they were breaking the law by presiding over criminal cases and committed to be referring such cases to the police.
The main objective of the training was to strengthen the capacity of the Village Elders to prevent Gender Based Violence and appropriately respond to it when it occurs. This is in view of the fact that the elders are the government’s representatives at the lowest level and they are the ones that cases of gender based violence are first reported to. By the end of the training, the elders realized how culture greatly influenced their work, making them biased against women and vowed to let go of the unhelpful cultural beliefs and practices. They also got to understand the different forms of gender based violence as well as the difference between civil and criminal cases. They realized that they were breaking the law by presiding over criminal cases and committed to be referring such cases to the police.
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