Southern Province has resolved to step up prevention, mobilisation and support to the National Women Council committees at the grassroots level in an effort to fight and prevent child abuse and gender based violence.

The resolutions were arrived at during a security meeting held on Tuesday in Huye District.

The meeting was co-chaired by the Minister for Gender and Family Promotion, Dr Diana Gashumba, and the Governor of the Southern Province, Alphonse Munyentwari.

It was also attended by all those in charge of gender from the sector to the provincial level.Minister Gashumba noted that stronger collective measures between security organs, local leaders and the

citizenry will help to identify and respond, effectively, to the challenges children and women face.

"Despite having policies in place, children and women are still being deprived of their rights, which leaves us all challenged as leaders. If we don’t act now, the consequences will be far reaching to the country,” said Gashumba.

She noted that, due to negligence of some parents, children have dropped out of school, and ended up on the street or getting, engage din casual labour in exploitative activities in mines, stone quarries and tea plantations.

Domestic and gender based violence, she observed, is the "string point” for poverty in the affected families and sometimes results into death and creates conflicts between children as well as they are caught between the lines to support either parent.

She appealed to the local leaders and security organs to support the National Women Council and their representatives at the Village and Cell level to fight and prevent gender based violence.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Francis Nkwaya, the Southern Region Police Commander, during the same meeting, gave a presentation on the security status in the region over the past two months, major causes of crime and the adopted measures to counter them.

He highlighted crimes related to illicit drugs, gender based violence and theft as some of the crimes still rated high in the region.

But he noted that the same crimes had tremendously decreased in recent years.

"This partnership (between police and the public) has eased flow of information and subsequent response to intercept and apprehend criminals, recover stolen items and, in many occasions, prevent a crime from happening,” ACP Nkwaya said.

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