The Brong-Ahafo regional office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service recorded 734 defilement cases in 2004 as against 713 the previous year. Mrs Victoria Owusu-Kyeremaa, Regional Director of the Department of Women, disclosed this at the launch of Women's week by the local National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) of the Faculty of Forest Resource Technology of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology at Fiapre, near Sunyani. The theme for the three-day celebration was: "Eradicating violence against women; the role of the student". Mrs Owusu-Kyeremaa said cases of rape increased from 181 in 2004 to 206 in 2005 whilst the Unit recorded 2,430 assault and battery cases in 2005 as against 2,059 in 2004. On non-child maintenance, she disclosed that the cases stood at 4,266 in 2005 as against 7,421 the previous year. Mrs. Owusu-Kyeremaa stressed the need for continued sensitisation of the people on violence against women and its impact on families and communities, especially the productive consequences on adolescents, to help eliminate the social canker. Mrs Akua Akubour Debrah, Regional Director of Education, explained that violence against women was a global phenomenon that needed immediate attention to curb it and attributed the alarming rate of women in drug and prostitution to the phenomenon. She noted that most violent and harmful practices existed in a "culture of silence" and denial and had a long history that was almost inextricably woven into a complex set of traditional ideas and beliefs most of which had outlived their values. Mrs. Debrah expressed regret about the upsurge of forced prostitution, trafficking, early marriage, rape and other acts that subjected women to violence and indignity in the name of tradition. She advised the students to collaborate with teachers and parents to establish clubs in schools to deal with women or citizenship issues to help eradicate gender-based violence. Mrs Debrah called on the students to be in the forefront of exposing violence and empowering the vulnerable and the marginalized to help break the life cycle of violence and promote the rights of females in society. Source: GNA