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Violence in the context of Mercy’s community is that people get sick and die due to a very preventable disease. As we know that Mercy and most women in their community are the designated carers of the sick and the rest of the family members, including making sure that their homes are also clean. However, no matter how Mercy and the women try to provide treatment by giving boiled rice water with sugar and salt, these disease will still continue to spread unless they get to address the cause of the problem, which need the collective action of the community leaders, advocates and everyone else in their community. Like the practice of proper handwashing and disposal of human wastes and other water sanitation and hygiene practices, that everyone in their community must be able to do.
Getting to the root cause of their community problem needs a systemic approach and will involve their leaders, advocates and everyone else. The installation of a safe and potable water system is one and possibly the installation of sanitary toilets in every home and teaching every one, adults and children alike to do proper handwashing practices and over-all hygiene and when to do these.
Since women and mothers have been considered as the primary producers of health in the homes and communities, these actions in the community can help ease up the burden of women on taking care of sick family members and keeping their homes clean.
Why is violence prevention important for Mercy’s community?
Violence happening in Mercy’s family is just a ‘tip of the iceberg or a silent epidemic’ in her community considering normalization of violence in the community. Violence Against Women and Girls in Mercy’s community contravene women and children’s rights and undermine development in the community. The economic costs of VAWG include the reduced economic earning power of women and girls and increased costs of providing services for survivors of violence. For instance, evidence shows that education and household wealth are strongly, negatively associated with both acceptance and experience of intimate partner violence. Therefore, violence prevention is very important because it addresses the structural causes, as well as the risk and protective factors, associated with violence and this is pivotal to eliminating violence against women and girls completely. Prevention is the only way to stop violence before it even occurs.
Which activities could prevent violence against women in her community
Interventions on VAWG prevention (as opposed to response) should be strengthened with more attention given to changing social norms and behaviours, reducing exposure to childhood abuse, tackling power imbalances (i.e. using power as the entry point rather than gender, interrogating both its positive and negative uses), increasing women’s economic empowerment, working with men and boys and with researchers. The activities should engage men and boys on harmful masculinities, including use of violence.
In Mercy’s community we can mention physical, sexual, emotional violence including the economic violence she undergoes . Violence prevention is important because people (women and girls ) live with fear. no one deserve to leave with fear. people need to fell safe.
What I know about Mercy’s story is that she faces violence (Emotional, physicals, economical, psychological but she tries to protect her children not to experience violence and also she is trying to cope with that live style she is living buy trying to look for solutions herself to keep her family.
Violence prevention is important for Mercy’s community so that violence can be eradicated for present and future generation as well as female in the community but also for social change where men/boys need to change for better. This will bring community development, women / girls participation in community development, less/ no health issues to women and men, little offences to perpetrators.
Some of the activities to prevent violence in Mercy’s community could be community discussions, focus group discussions (men. women, youth, local leaders…), workshops, campaigns, use of media, talk shows, use of artists, discussions in schools and curriculum on gender equality with includes violence prevention.
One example of a violence prevention activity is; Community discussions for both men and women and youth on the issue of violence in their community, its consequences to individual, families and the community in general and how all should be responsible for the solution in fighting violence so that women and girls be able to enjoy life as men as well as contributing to the development of the community.
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