Participants at a gender responsive and disaster management workshop in Koforidua have called on the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to educate traders against cooking in markets since those practices could cause fire outbreaks. The participants, made up of women drawn from various organizations in Koforidua noted that the increasing rate at which traders are turning their stalls into kitchen is alarming and needs to be looked at to ensure that their actions do not affect others. They said cooking in markets is worrying considering the fact that those wooden structures were weak, coupled with the materials stored in markets. They called on NADMO and the municipal assembly to institute a bye-law to that effect because several warnings issued those cooking in markets to put an end to it had not been heeded. The workshop was organized by ABANTU for Development, a non-governmental organization, and NADMO to promote gender responsive culture in climate change, risk management and disaster risk reduction. Mrs Hamida Harrison from ABANTU explained that if women are well-informed about the causes and the state of their vulnerability, they would be positioned to reduce disaster effects and the ramifications of climate change. According to her, because women are the main agents of socialization and spend greater time with children, especially when disaster occur, it is prudent that they are educated on disaster risks reduction to give a knowledge based approach in disaster management. Source: GNA