Girl Guides Sri Lanka say “Stop Violence against Women”

At its last World Conference held in July 2011, t h e Wo r l d Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts ( WAGGGS) launched the “Stop the Violence: Speak Out for Girls’ Rights” campaign that aims at supporting girls and women to understand and assert their rights – rights that should be recognised as basic human rights by everyone.

Through non- formal education programmes, international calls to action, direct lobbying and community work, this new campaign will put girls and young women in the lead and mobilize them globally to demand an end to violence against girls.

Even before this mandate was declared with its vision for the future, the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association ( SLGGA) had already implemented a number of programmes related to the well being of the girl child.

These activities, thematically called the “Girl Child Project”, had been conducted in stages for well over a decade.

The SLGGA will be conducting a Girl Guide Assembly with the involvement of Guides, Senior Guides and Youth as well as non Guides in order to hear their thoughts and voices on this timely issue of “Stop the Violence: Speak Out for Girls’ Rights”. It will be held on the 7th of April, to commemorate the 95 years of Girl Guiding in Sri Lanka.

There will be a team of 12 representatives f rom each province which will include 3 Senior Guides, 3 Guides, 3 non guides and 3 youth.

The provinces have been assigned topics related to violence against women and girls to research and prepare position papers and present them in order to strengthen the statement prepared by the leadership of the Association. The topics given are Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Child Labour, Rape and Molestation.

The research and findings will be on:

National position of the problem

Action taken to reduce the problem nationally

Global situation of the problem Global action What Girl Guides can do regarding the problem in their Provinces.

It is fervently hoped that the outcome of this assembly will be taken up for consideration by the higher authorities in order to “stop violence against women” in Sri Lanka.