Gender -based violence in Pointe-Noire : youth are questionning why their mothers are beaten by their fathers, their husbands?

The project on the Youth Earth Charter and the building of youth activism in sustainable development in Pointe-Noire in Congo continues its normal course with the active participation of children and youth in the selected schools.

Yesterday, 05 March 2009, the youth of the private school located in the Mosque area “7-7 Dany” took part in the presentation and discussion which focused on the theme "affirming the equality and gender equity as a prerequisite to sustainable development, ensuring human rights of women and girls and end all violence against them. "

Developed by Davy Hermann Malanda from the Youth organization CJESS, this topic, has enabled young students to understand the terms of equality, fairness, interdependence between gender equality and sustainable development, girls and women’s rights. their participation was very active and they liked the theme discussed. Thus, answering the questions related to children’s rights, the students cited the right to education, the right to have an opinion, the right to health care, the right to be protected, and so on.

The students Tchicaya Emmarin, for example, defines rape as "the fact that a man is sexually abusing a girl."

These children didn’t hesitate to ask questions about the concepts that were not mentioned in the presentation. So a few questions were around

- How could youth contribute to the sustainable development of their countires?
- What is the MDGs?
- Why rich people have their say in Pointe-Noire, and not so for the poor; are we really equal?
- Why are our mothers being beaten by our fathers, their husbands?
- Does anyone respect gender equality and equal opportunities in Congo?

We were surprised by these questions that show that children and young people are witnesses or victims of gender-based violence perpetrated by men, often fathers. This is an issue and you generally taboo in families, and students were able to speak freely.

In the city of Pointe-Noire, the media often report cases of sexual and domestic violence. The rape of girls by their fathers has been reported several times in TV. The issue of rape raises many concerns, often because the perpetrators are not punished and the victims have no access to assistance, as they keep it taboo.

Before the end of the discussion, children and tyouth were given books and pens provided by AZUR Développement.

The children recognized that “each of us there is some wealth as the intelligence, wisdom that can only speak when there is an absence of violence. " So violence is an obstacle to sustainable development they concluded.
They wanted to see specific action for this, especially that there is no project in schools to educate young people about gender-based violence.


Extract from the report of the project using the Earth Charter as tool for activism for youth.

Romeo Mbengou
Reporting from Pointe-Noire