Awareness focuses on respecting women

A NON-government organisation (NGO) is carrying out awareness in Jiwaka about respecting women.
The Voice for Change said the awareness would create peaceful markets for women, especially mothers, to sell garden produce and support their families.
Through the Pacific Women Shaping Development programme – an Australian government-funded programme, the NGO begin the awareness drive at the two main markets in Minj and Kudjip.
Voice for Change director Lilly Be’ Soer said markets was where vendors, mostly women, spent their time earning an income to support their families.
She said money made at market was used to pay for school fees, feed and clothe families and pay for services such as health.
Soer said when women were abused, their rights neglected or not considered, their families and the community suffered in the long run.
“This organisation focuses on addressing other issues like gender-based violence in order to protect women from exercising their rights as the citizen of this country.”