@malambalangi09
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I don’t believe there would have been much of a huge difference if she lived in my community because we have lots of men who behave like Clinton, and women who subscribe to the same norms about violence and love and the gender roles. In my community, people frown upon a husband who has lost a job and becomes a house husband managing the home and children. There are snide remarks about abuse or such a man being labelled lazy.. or he ends up trying to live a lie to pretend like he is still the bread winner. Mental health challenges are rife which contributes to miscommunication in the home and the cycle of abuse starts.
1. Gender inequality as enabler:
There are ascribed roles which further disposes women like Mercy and relegates them to being baby making machines . Girls are discouraged for seeking education and access is only limited to boys (they get resources, opportunities and are positioned to be powerful (provider status) which is how Clinton managed to use SEA to gain favour with Mercy and later married her and continued to physically, emotional and probably economically abused her as she ended up doing all the chores , raising the children as unpaid labour nd also going to the markets to sell. The church also played a role in preaching chastity and submissiveness etc in relationships.
2. Violence and inequality
She is objectified in the loveless relationship with no voice as she is perceived as having no rights, and the family will probably ostracize her if she returns home to flee the abuse and violence (stigma), the church will also admonish and shame her for being a bad wife and she may suffer secondary victimization and abuse.1. Accountable to women and girls
We facilitate circle dialogues with both men and women to create equal platform for engagement where women can lead discussions and offer creative solutions sharing of their own experiences. For example in a newly built transit camp, women were not consulted about the location of the ECD centre, water source and the toilets/ablution block. We made sure that their unhappiness was registered with the office of the regional director responsible for urban sprawl development and facilitated a session where women could freely raise their objections and offered women friendly solutions to mitigate safety and security risks.
2. Gender power analysis
a lot of educational awareness was done with the men leaders in the transit camp to make them aware of the power imbalance when decision making positions were created which further relegated women to ‘carer’ types of positions as opposed to strategists who can lead transformation programmes in the camp , which will benefit the women and young girls. a number of programs to dispel stereotypes about women were used for different age groups to further affirm women
3. Inclusive and intersectional
our programmes challenged the stereotypical way in which women were caricatured according to gender identities and characteristics attributed to them. WE deliberately created platforms to help both women and men to analyze the prevalence of GBV and SEA (sexual exploitation and abuse) in the camp and encouraged shared values and commitment to mitigate the escalation of VAW incidents in the transit camp.
4. Prioritising safety of women and girls
elimination of VAWCE( violence against women ,children and elderly) was an integral part of our community outreach programmes where we worked jointly with ward committee leaders of the section where the transit camp was situated. The relocation of the toilets and water sources to a well lit section of the transit camp was a clear indication of commitment from leadership to prioritize safety of women and girl children. The permissive environment created for open and honest dialogues around what affects women and children in the transit camp prevented potential backlash and resentment.
5. Starting with ourselves
Our motto has always been to start where the service end users are and have a non-judgmental attitude when working with vulnerable women’s groups. Self- appraisals were conducted with all recruited volunteers in the programme to ensure that they reflect on their own personal values, prejudices, stereotypes and unresolved issues, so they know why they want to be part of the SAME (society activation, mobilization and empowerment programme) activists who advocated for social justice, equity, human rights and equality. Everyone had to go through thorough screening and personal development programme to ensure that there is adequate support and relevant interventions before they can assist others.I had a mixed bag of activities cutting across the continuum as illustrated :
Selective prevention -education and awareness activities for the affected survivors (women and children) and the alleged perpetrators ; this programme target a select groups such as those affected by VAW ; and also target specifically perpetratorsResponse/ mitigation- Whistle blower activities for the supporters, collaborators and generalized others such as family members, church groups, community activists, clinic staff etc. This programme activity is aimed at improving service responses to reduce incidents that predisposes women and children to gender violence , sexual exploitation and abuse.
universal prevention/mitigation -Drama activities to simplify and demonstrate how VAW manifests and affect family life.
Response -Advocacy and social mobilization activities to lobby policy makers is also critical to ensure legal instruments are implemented in the best interest of survivors. This activity unpacks root causes of GBV and IPV in a simplified easy to visualize , identify and understand way through enactment of concepts. This approach is particularly good where high levels of illiteracy exists or there is fear of being stigmatized. When actors are portraying characters through different scenes carrying different messages, audiences are able to identify what happens to them in their veiled safety and resonate better with certain character leading particular complex themes such as emotional ,or verbal abuse or sexual harassment etc.The general normalization of violence in many forms, such as physical, sexual, economic etc was rife in Mercy’s community.
Prevention is very important because it is solution focused and creative to preempt future reoccurrences of episodes of violence. Properly thought through prevention programmes will have education and awareness for the affected survivors and the alleged perpetrators ; the supporters, collaborators and generalized others such as family members, church groups, community activists, clinic staff etc.
Prevention activities
Properly thought through prevention programmes will have education and awareness activities for the affected survivors (women and children) and the alleged perpetrators ; whistle blower activities for the supporters, collaborators and generalized others such as family members, church groups, community activists, clinic staff etc. Drama activities to simplify and demonstrate how VAW manifests and affect family life. Advocacy and social mobilization activities to lobby policy makers is also critical to ensure legal instruments are implemented in the best interest of survivors . The community successfully decreased high mortality rates due to cholera using community mobilization strategies and lobbied government in the water and sanitation sector to install toilets and portable water systems which completely eliminated cholera.
