More than 200 officials from NGOs and the government marched in Phnom Penh on Friday afternoon in a “white ribbon campaign” to highlight the need to speak out in order to eliminate violence against women and children.
“To keep silent means you collude with perpetrators of violence against women and children,” said Ros Sopheap, executive director for NGO Gender and Development for Cambodia.
“If you speak out even only one time, you can prevent women and children from all forms of violence,” she said.
Marchers—who wore white ribbons—distributed educational leaflets, posters and stickers to onlookers to promote an end to domestic violence in Cambodia.
The event was the fifth white ribbon campaign in Cambodia, according to Sat Thida, of the NGO Gender and Development for Cambodia.
Since 2000, the white ribbon campaigns have helped to increase awareness of root causes of domestic violence, Sat Thida said.
In the provinces, campaigners have also been visiting villagers door-to-door to get the anti-violence message across.
The canvassing strategy allows officials to meet remote villagers to educate them about the damaging impact of violence, Ros Sopheap said.
Motorbike taxi driver Sun Supheak, 36, who fashioned a white ribbon to his clothes at Friday’s march, said that older Cambodians were more likely to respond to the anti-violence message than young people.
“Hopefully, the young generation will understand the meaning of white ribbons because the majority of them seem to use violence to resolve matters,” he said.
“I am proud to wear it because I want to tell the public I am a man who is free of violence.”
