Strengthening community resilience key to ending GBV – UN

Umguza (New Ziana)- Creating community resilience through strengthening livelihood projects in vulnerable women is critical at a time when the country is facing an Elnino-induced drought, a senior United Nations official has said.

According to women’s rights group Musasa, drought increased the risk of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, child marriages as well as harmful traditional practices.

The Ministry of Women Affairs Community Small and Medium Enterprises Development, has been implementing a 6-month project in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other UN agencies with support from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) as part of the drought anticipatory action plan.

Started in January 2024, the project aims to strengthen Gender Based Violence (GBV) services to vulnerable women and girls in eight affected districts of Chipinge, Buhera, Mwenezi, Chiredzi, Hwange, Umguza, Beitbridge and Gwanda reaching 32 000 women.

Women in these districts are members of the Safe Spaces where they socialise and gain life skills to build economic resilience as a strategy to prevent violence.

Speaking in Umguza district, Matabeleland North province where he led other UN agencies to visit the projects being implemented by women under the CERF as a way of strengthening their resilience to drought, Kallon said he was impressed that through the program, the community gained awareness on GBV which is going to help them fight the scourge.

He said the economic empowerment of women will go a long way in the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

“The awareness has been raised and you are going beyond awareness and talking of economic empowerment. I was so impressed to hear that women can now venture into mining, that’s the collective confidence you have demonstrated.

“I am leaving here with satisfaction that indeed people can take their own destiny into their hands,” he said.

Poultry, tailoring, mining, and detergent making are some of the income-generating projects the women of Umguza are into during the ongoing drought, courtesy of the CERF.

The impact of drought has worsened the situation in rural areas where they rely heavily on subsistence farming to feed their families.

Kallon said he was impressed with the way women were interested in the projects.

“We will continue to help them,” he said

The CERF program has a shuttle manned by a counsellor, which helps GBV survivors on their journey to healing and ensures that survivors have the resources needed to access life-saving services such as the police and health centres.

Speaking at the same event, UNFPA Zimbabwe representative Miranda Tabifor reiterated that the empowerment of women meant that they now know where to go when abused.

“CERF has transformed their lives. We believe that this awareness and livelihood program is going to help them as well as address issues of GBV.

“As a technical implementor of the CERF project, UNFPA we are satisfied with what we have seen here today,” she said.

Jane Ngwenya, a member of the Masiyepampili Safe Space, said the shuttle service enhanced access to services that they get from Bulawayo.

“We had difficulty reporting GBV but with the shuttle, we could easily use it to access services in Bulawayo,” she said.

According to Musasa, a total of 734 women in Umguza were assisted through the shuttle.

It said economic, emotional, sexual abuse, rape, child marriages are some of the abuses women in the district experience.

New Ziana