The Department of Women at the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MWCA) in collaboration with Wa Catholic Diocese and German Development Service would assist 7,000 widows and orphans in the Upper West Region this year. Upper West Regional Director of the Department, Mrs Kate Bob-Milliar, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Wa said the assistance would begin this month to enable the widows and orphans live decently and responsibly. She said other collaborators Ghana Aids Fund (GARFUND) had offered some financial assistance while Department of Social Welfare had presented some used clothing towards the programmes. Mrs Bob-Milliar said in addition to the programme, the Department would embark on an extensive programme on women with mental health problems in collaboration with BASIC NEEDS a Tamale-based NGO. On the abuse of girls in the region, she appealed to the Judiciary to live up to expectation and deliver stiffer punishments to offenders. She added that “Their performance towards rape and defilement cases in the region, have not been satisfactory. We believe they could perform better to reduce the incidence of rape and defilement in the communities,“ Mrs Bob-Milliar appealed to parents of the victims to refrain from withdrawing such cases from the courts for amicable settlement, because such behaviour could encourage the incidence of rape and defilement. She said establishment of women groups in the region had increased from 80 in 2005 to 170 in 2006, while women elected assembly members had also increased from three in 1998 to 18 in 2006. Mrs Bob-Milliar attributed the improvement to hard work from the Department and the Ministry.