ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Speakers at a ceremony here on Monday called upon the government to ensure implementation of women-friendly laws in the country and make amendments to the existing laws where necessary.

They were speaking at the launching ceremony of ‘We can campaign’, programme aimed to change the attitudes and beliefs of a critical mass of ordinary people through simple and small actions to end violence against women.

The nationwide campaign under the slogan `We can end violence against women’ was initiated in 2005 by Oxfam which is working for ending poverty and improving lives of individuals particularly women in more than 80 countries.

The speakers called upon the government to approve and implement the Domestic Violence Bill to redress the grievances of women in distress.

The campaign encompasses 1,000 events and aims at raising awareness among the masses for breaking silence about violence against women.

From November 25, 2008 to March 31, 2009, the scheduled 1,000 events per district in two dozens districts will consist of seminars, rallies, funfairs, interactive dialogues and meetings with community members, theatrical performances, debates in educational institutions and many other activities aimed at promoting a ‘violence free’ society.

The events will take place in districts where the incidence of gender-based violence is high. According to the Asian Development Bank, 85 per cent of women in the country have experienced violence at some time in their lives.

Iftikhar Khalid, country director of Oxfam, said, “Although our message touches everyone but its focus is the rural or semi-urban population which needs to be mobilised to undo those taboos and customs which promote anti-women attitudes in society.”

He said our nominated change makers will arrange 24,000 events which would influence 500,000 people directly or indirectly.

The objective of this campaign is to promote awareness on the issue of violence against women.

Sharing the change maker theory, he said, “An individual becomes a change maker when he pledges to refrain from violence in his own life and to convert other people to become change makers as well.”

Currently, there are 144,000 volunteer change makers engaged with the campaign in 1,036 union councils, 90 tehsils of 29 districts. The target is to reach 700,000 change makers by the year 2011, he added.

These change makers represent all strata of society including students, teachers, lawyers, farmers, housewives, ulema, policemen, mediapersons, traders and policy makers.

The campaign is steered by 400 national allies, while Oxfam supports their initiatives and participates as an alliance member. This campaign is a regional level initiative and the 1,000 events are being launched simultaneously in six South Asian countries. Across the region, the campaign has engaged over 1.2 million change markers through 18,000 alliance members.