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Women Group Opens Shelter for Abused Women, Children
The first safe haven for women and children victims of abuse in Liberia has officials been opened in Monrovia. During the program, which was held June 9, 2006 at the Urban Chateau Hotel on 10th Street in Sinkor, Mrs. Beverly Goll-Yekeson told the gathering that the opening of the safe house marked the bringing to fruition of her life time dream of putting the plight of abused women and children to the top of the agenda of the Liberian society.
Mrs. Yekeson told the audience that the fight against rape and other forms of sexual abuse in the Liberia is going to be a long and hard fight.
She admonished the victims of rape not to despair in their quest for justice. She said that giving up was the worst form of admitting defeat.
Mrs. Yekeson, who is the President and Founder of the United States based Liberia Crisis Center for Abused Women & Children, the organization under whose auspices the Liberia Shelter for Abused Women & Children operates, indicated that the rising tide of rape cases in the country has served to denigrate the women and children of Liberia.
She further explained to the audience that in order for Liberia and Liberians to make a clean break with their turbulent past, the country would have to rid itself of this last vestige of the civil war. Mrs. Yekeson noted that the wanton nature of rape in the country was a by-product of the 14 years of civil war that tore Liberia apart.
Also speaking at the program, Ms. Ricks who represented the Ministry of Gender & Development extolled the novelty of the shelter project in Liberia.
She thanked the Liberia Crisis Center for its farsightedness in the establishment of the shelter, and pledged the Gender Ministry's support for the implementation of the project.
During the program, the Ministry of Gender & Development was presented with a "welcome to the shelter bag" which contained several essential items for the use of victims upon their arrival at the shelter.
The concept of the "Welcome to the Shelter Bag," was introduced to the Liberia Crisis Center for Abused Women and Children by Ms. Colleen Nugent, Vice President of Zonta International Mid-Hudson Valley in New Windsor, New York in the USA.
Ms. Nugent has also provided the shelter with technical assistance on the operation of such facilities. The shelter is to be known as the Laura Henkel House, in honor of an Australian survival of rape in South Africa. The Shelter will serve as a temporary haven for women and children victims of sexual and domestic violence in Liberia.
It will provide free and confidential health care, crisis counseling, emotional support, legal advocacy, and business development training for victims.
It will also serve as a mechanism for the documentation of serious human rights violations, and gathering the data necessary to prosecute those who are responsible for committing crimes of rape, sexual exploitation, and domestic violence.
The present shelter is to be temporarily used until the future construction of the Laura Henkel House is completed. In a related development, a retreat, which brought together parents, victims and members of several communities around Monrovia, was held to formally end the programs marking the official opening of the shelter.
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