Mercy’s story, Part 3

Let’s start with a short story to get us thinking about the need for prevention programming.

Members of Mercy’s community found a way to treat people who fell sick, and some got better. This was a response to the sickness.

But Mercy wondered how to stop people getting sick in the first place. She was wondering how to prevent the sickness. The scientists were able to understand what was causing the sickness, and Mercy, her neighbours, and the whole community came up with ways to reduce the risks of sickness. Eventually, a way was found to totally prevent anyone getting sick.

Bringing it back to violence against women, response services are critical, but we cannot reduce today’s high levels of violence by supporting one survivor at a time. If we really want to have an impact on reducing violence, we need to stop it before it starts, and reduce the frequency and severity of further episodes where it has previously occurred.