DOVVSU to introduce ‘one-stop centre of services’

The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service is to introduce a one-stop centre of services for victims of abuse and others who need its services, to promote efficiency in the system.

Under the programme, a police station, a clinic, shelter, juvenile cell, a social worker, counsellor, a cafetaria, among others, will be provided under one roof, to offer services to reduce the stress victims go through.

Courtesy call

The Director of DOVVSU, Chief Superintendent Owusuwaa Kyeremeh, made this known when she paid a courtesy call on the acting Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Ransford Tetteh, in Accra.
Her visit was to solicit the support of the media to assist the unit in its sensitisation drive of educating the public on issues that border on rape, other social vices that affect women and the recent upsurge of gang rape among the youth.
She said in most cases, victims and their families go through a lot of stress due to what she termed secondary victimisation, where after being abused, victims rush to the charge office to make a report and meet unfriendly police personnel who frustrate them.

New concept

Chief Supt Kyeremeh said that development made some victims reluctant to report cases and noted that the one-stop centre concept, which was adopted from South Africa, would create an enabling environment where domestic violence cases and other forms of abuses would be freely reported.

She said the unit was collaborating with other stakeholders to provide a coordinated timely response to victims of abuse in order to win the confidence of the public.

She said statistically cases of domestic violence were on the increase but those were nothing compared to cases that were not reported to the police and added that a collaboration with the media would help reverse the situation.

Police/media collaboration

For his part, Mr Tetteh said crime combat was the responsibility of all, as the police needed information from the public to succeed.

He said some people currently posted images of rape victims on social media without considering the repercussions on the victims and their families and stressed the need for the media to be circumspect when reporting such cases.

He said the police remained one of the biggest sources of stories for the media and there was, therefore, the need for the two to collaborate effectively in order to feed the public with the right information.

Mr Tetteh urged the DOVVSU director to extend the sensitisation beyond the frontiers of the city and the regional capitals to the rural areas, particularly to areas where there were no police stations and chiefs settled rape cases in their palaces without informing the police.

For her Part, the Editor of the Junior Graphic, Mrs Mavis Kitcher, assured the director of her readiness to partner the DOVVSU to highlight rape and other issues that affected children.

She was particularly worried about the circulation of the Bantama gang rape video on social media, and advised that issues of that nature needed to be handled with great caution because ultimately, the victim and family suffered negative consequences.

The Editor of the Mirror, Ms Janet Quartey, also pledged the preparedness of her outfit to partner the DOVVSU on its sensitisation drive, by dedicating a page to highlight societal issues affecting women and children.