Thirty anti-violence teams undergo training

Kumasi, April 20, GNA - A five-day legal aid training workshop for about thirty community based anti-violence team members drawn from the Atwima Mponua district of Ashanti ended at Ahwiaa, near Kumasi at the weekend.

The participants were drawn from the three community based anti-violence teams at Nyinawusu, Serebuoso and Nkrumah. It was organized by the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) in partnership with the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre.

The training workshop formed part of the Nkyinkyim Project, which seeks to help address the pride of women and children considered disadvantaged in society.

The participants were taken through topics like law on marriage and divorce, interstate succession law, wills Act, maintenance, administration of estate and probate under Legislative Instrument (LI) 1515, children's Act and Access and custody. Speaking on law and marriages, Mrs Emelia Adjepong, a member of the Centre's board , touched on the various forms of marriages and said marriage under the Ordinance can be broken only through the courts. She advised all those who want to marry through the church to ensure the church and pastor were properly licensed since the law recognized only licensed churches and pastors. Explaining the sharing of the property of a husband who dies interstate, Mrs Adjepong said where the deceased had more than one house, the wife and the children had the right of choice to the house they like.

She said three-sixth of the remaining property of the deceased also goes to the surviving spouse, nine-sixteenth goes to the surviving child or children, one eight goes to the surviving parents while one eight is also distributed according to custom.

Where, the deceased is not survived by a parent, a quarter of the residue is distributed according to custom, she said.

Mrs Bernice Sam, National Co-ordinator Women In Law and Development in Africa, (WILDAF) pointed out that, there was the need to build the capacities of the community based anti-violence teams and state agencies to enhance service delivery.