Who are we? Located in Accra, The Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (Gender Centre) is a not for profit, non-governmental rights-based organisation incorporated in August 1995 by four women's rights activists. The objective of the Gender Centre is to enhance the Status of Women in Ghana.
Vision
A society where there is respect for the fundamental rights of all persons
and where women’s rights are promoted.
General Services
Provided
The Gender Centre does not provide direct services to women and children
experiencing violence. Rather, the focus of our work is research, advocacy,
training, materials development and documentation.
In the current phase of our anti-violence programme work we are running three pilot projects on rural/community based responses to violence against women. The pilots are testing a model of rural response that we hope can be replicated at the end of a test period of 12 months. The locations for the pilots are;
- Akawani in Kwabibirem District (Eastern Region)
- Kwanfini in Atwima District (Ashanti Region) and
- Teogo in Bawku West
District (Upper East Region).
In each of these pilots
a community based anti-violence team has been trained to provide seven
types of services:
- assessment
- basic first aid,
- support and counselling,
- referrals and accompaniment,
- conflict resolution (when requested),
- sanctioning and follow-ups.
All of the rural response programmes are complimented with advocacy, capacity building, networking and alliance building and sensitisation and education in each of the three districts.
The Gender Centre also does training and sensitisation work on gender, gender justice and gender based violence. Our targets have been the police, medical staff, social workers, partner organizations and civil society as a whole.
Part of the advocacy work of the Gender Centre’s anti-violence work in this project cycle will be undertaking national consultation about the content of and need for domestic violence legislation.