Leadership at All Levels Is Central to Ending Violence Against Women and Girls
In honor of African Child Day, Naana Otoo-Oyortey MBE, Executive Director of FORWARD, wrote this blog for Lever for Change. FORWARD is an Action for Women’s Health awardee organisation and Bold Solutions Network member.
Growing up, seeing my father beat my mother made me think violence against women was normal. In my first relationship, I expected my partner to beat me. – Adama (name changed for privacy)
I recently returned to Freetown for the first time in nearly three years. There, I attended the graduation of 45 young women who had completed a leadership, mentoring, and sisterhood-building programme run by the Girl 2 Girl (G2G) Empowerment Movement, FORWARD’s longtime local partner. FORWARD has supported participatory research and grassroots action with G2G for more than a decade. Girls like Adama aren’t alone in their experiences. In communities across the region, violence against girls is deeply embedded, passed from one generation to the next.
Read the full blog piece here.
