The Canadian High Commission in Ghana has collaborated with the Sirigu Women in Pottry and Art, (SWOPA) to broke peace in the Doba and Kandiga and other adjoining communities in the Kasina-Nankana West District, using Women and men who are interrelated.
The program which is on the theme “Leveraging community connections to build networks for sustainable peace and conflict resolution: role of Poyaasi and Isi” is aimed at using women who are either from Kandiga, Zorko, Mirigu, Yua, Doba Sirigu,and are married to any of the six communities or Vice versa, (Poyasi) to champion peace in their respective communities.
Again, as part of the program, young men who hail from either of these Communities but uncle any of thes six communities have been identified and brought together as peace advocates in their respective communities.
The leaders of the women(poyasi) groups and men (Isi) groups were brought together by the Sirigu Women in Pottery and Art (SWOPA) with support from the Canada Fund for Local Initiative at SWOPA and given training to equip them with the primary skills to advocate for peace in their respective communities.
Speaking to the media at the sidelines of the training programme, Mr Eric Chimci, senior development officer at the Canadian High Commission, said the Canadian High Commission is focused on the undeserved areas where they aim to reach out to the “poorest of the poor”.
Mr. Eric said the decision to focuse on building the capacity of women is influenced by the interest of Canada in women as agents of change in communities.
” Canada is a feminist country dedicated to empowering women. The bases being that a population that runs on male population is not as strong as one involving everyone and so we feel that in the effort of building peace and making peace and sustaining peace, we need the efforts of women in all the communities.”
Mr. Eric added that the need to bring women on board to see and appreciate the need for peace is even more relevant in this current fast changing global dynamics.
“If you look at global dynamics, it tells you that we are now living in a fast changing world and so in order not to leave anybody behind, we are supporting this initiative to ensure that our women understand the meaning of peace and get hold of what peace brings around. If a a hospital is there and there are no health workers, how do we get health for our people, if a school are there and there are no teachers to teach, nothing can be done to develop our human resources and this is what we want them to see and appreciate so that we can develop our human resources to be able to take up challenging responsibilities.”
The Director of the Sirigu Women in Art(SWOPA), Madam Bridget Kasisi explained that the project is also aimed to bring Women from the various communities to identify themselves and to rejuvenate some aspect of their culture that is dying off.
” Today we have brought together Women leaders from Yua, mirigu, Zorko, Doba, Sirigu and Kandiga who are also married to these communities who are called “Poyasi” to form groups that will help them to identify things that they can do to help themselves in their homes and eesolve challenges that each group member is facing”
” In our culture, if a women is being married to a community, she is expected to first identify an old woman who is from her town and is married to that community, to stay with for about three days where she is given orientation on the ‘dose’ and ‘don’ts’ in the community. This practice helped the women to settle down and integrate well. However these practises are dying off and that is what we want to rejuvenate in them.”
Madam Bridget added that the wome are happy to meet and interact though Doba and Kandiga communities have been in conflict for sometime.
” The women are friends and relatives and have known each other for sometime. So as they meet, regardless of the conflict, they interact and laugh with each other while praying that the conflict will be over some day so they can all have peace .”
The “poyasi and isi” have been identified unsder the initiative as key agents that can help brochure peace in homes and communities, especially in the Doba and Kandiga communities.
Some of the women who spoke to the media expressed optimism that the project will be a tool that will help end the conflict in homes and communities in the district.
By: Simon Agana Blessing/mywordfmonline.com