Koforidua (Eastern Region) - The Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Police Service had recorded 176 defilement cases in the Eastern Region since the introduction of WAJU at Koforidua two years ago.

Police Supt Elizabeth Allandu of the Unit who announced this at Koforidua on Wednesday, however said, the frequency with which cases were reported to the unit at it's inception had slowed down but did not give figures to support her claim.

She attributed the reduction in defilement cases to a decline in violence against women and children in the region due to the "high and adequate sentences given to perpetrators by the courts as well as the media coverage given to the trial of such cases."

Supt Allandu was delivering a speech on the levels and trends of violence against women and children in the Eastern Region at a day's seminar organized by the National Population Council (NPC) for the media and the security agencies in the region.

It was under the theme "Men, HIV/AIDS and violence against women and children - the leadership challenge." Supt Allandu said her unit allowed a few of such cases to be settled at home due to family interventions but explained that at times this would depend on the extent of damage caused to the victim "but we don't advise the women to succumb to settlement."

She mentioned some of the problems facing the Unit as lack of telephone facilities to enable victims call the office for prompt assistance as well as a vehicle to arrest perpetrators.

Supt. Allandu said due to financial constraints some victims failed to report cases to the Unit while others were influenced by "valuable considerations" and, therefore, refused to report back to the Unit after being issued with a medical form to attend hospital.

Delivering a paper on the "Role of the media in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS and violence against women and children", an editor of the Ghana News Agency, Edmund Quaynor, said despite the heavy investment in the campaign against HIV/AIDS and violence against women and children, if reported cases are still high then there are problems with the campaign programmes.

He, therefore, advised advocates of the two programmes to engage the services of professional communicators when it comes to fashioning out their communication and information messages so that the desired effect could be achieved.