Liberia-Women Movement for Sustainable Development has embarked on civic education initiative that targets women, girls and young people as a way of educating them on their rights.
The initiative launched recently in the Thinkers village Community brought together over 50 women, most of them from the Godzon Community.
Speaking at the opening of the sessions, Executive Director Grace Y. Yeaynay, said the organization has seen the need to embark on the initiative so that women get to know and understand their rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Liberia.
Madam Yeaynay said tough women are doing a whole lot, they fall short knowing their rights.
“Over the years, we have talked about women’s rights, but how can one talks about their rights when they don’t know where those rights are, and they do not even know the constitution of Liberia,” she rhetorically quipped.
She said the initiative is a long-term program with the potential to benefit women in four communities in the Thinkers village area, adding that it will highlight how their rights are structured as per the 1986 constitution of Liberia.
“After the meeting, we want to work with the women in these communities and the way we want to work is, at the end of the meeting, we will identify nine persons who will be civic-education-cell,” she added.
“All of what we are going to do is to become a good citizen and engage our leaders in a constructive way,” she added
According to her, it is time for women to be more constructive in their approaches and also organize themselves in a way that stakeholders will provide a space for them on the table of major decision-making.
Madam Yeaynay disclosed that the group has conducted series of activities in four of Liberia’s 15 counties, ranging from helping people in needs, EBOLA, COVID interventions, women living with HIV, as well as police and motorcyclists among others.
According to her, the group was established in 2008 and got accredited as an organization in 2009, saying that she and others had felt that women, girls, and young people needed to form part of national discussions, including having seats at the table of decision making.
Godzon Community Women Chairperson, Oretha M. Jacobs said, “I organized my women, and we started a community watch,” and explained that the initiative helped in reducing the rate at which rubbery happened in their community.
“We have our code, and when one person calls, we come outside without fear,” she said with a laughter across her face.
