Foreign
CHIEF Warrant Officer Alizeta Kinda of the Burkina Faso National Police has received the United Nations Police Officer of the Year award.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the award is given yearly, to a woman police officer currently serving in a United Nations peace operation for exceptional performance.
The award, which was presented to Kinda on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the third UN Chiefs of Police Summit (UNCOPS), was co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Canada and Norway.
It was monitored by NAN via the UNWebTV.
Mr Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations said the award was granted to Kinda for her service to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
According to him, MINUSMA is one of the difficult and dangerous missions.
Lacroix said it was a mission in which it was often very difficult to reach women and girls to give support and information regarding their rights in order for them to become better aware of their needs.
“Chief Warrant Officer Kinda and her team have devoted themselves to this difficult task by organizing, as it was, information sharing sessions, that allowed them to reach more than 1000 women.
“Her efforts were very important to create an environment of trust that allowed victims to find themselves or feel that they could trust in the process that allowed them obtain support.”
Lacroix noted that the Women, Peace and Security Agenda stressed the need to accelerate efforts to achieve gender parity,.
He said that achieving parity was not about just numbers but mostly about enabling women and men to have a fully equal and meaningful role in the workplace.
“By serving as a role model, and as a leader for her fellow police officers and members of the community, Officer Kinda is really an inspiration to all of us and her work shows what can be accomplished when we support and empower women police officers,” Lacroix said.
NAN also reports that Kinda currently serves as a gender focal point with MINUSMA.
Her efforts to promote and improve understanding of gender, child protection and human rights issues in Menaka have led to increased reporting of cases of sexual and gender-based violence to the Malian Security Forces.
In her remarks, she expressed gratitude to the UN for recognizing and valuing her work in MINUSMA beyond her expectations.
“I am pleased that despite the terrorist threats, the IED and rocket attacks, the efforts of my colleagues and myself are receiving accolades and I am happy that I have invested in contributing to women’s capacity building.
“During my deployment, I observed that women in Mali did not always feel independent and autonomous, especially in areas outside Bamako, so I set myself the personal goal of changing that.”
According to her, she developed and implemented a project to help 50 local women make and sell eco-friendly bags.
This, she said, allowed them to pay for their children’s school fees, as well as medical expenses, with the support of the Human Rights section.
Kinda noted that together with her colleagues, workshops and conferences were organized for boys and girls to raise awareness on the attitudes and behaviors necessary to be protected from dangers in their daily activities.
“We focused on the importance of keeping girls in the school system in a sustainable manner, the value of joining the ranks of the Malian security forces as well as the harms of early marriage.
“With this knowledge, I sincerely hope that the younger generations of Menaka are better equipped to contribute to the fight against sexual and gender based violence, advocate for the school education of the girl and understand the importance of the presence of women in the Malian security forces.
“This award makes me a UN ambassador for peace and promotion of gender. I promise to hold the torch high by continuing to honour the UN through my work and my daily commitment,” she said (NAN)
A.I
Tags: Alizeta Kinda MINUSMA Mr Jean-Pierre Lacroix UN
