Call to end GBV

TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO

A non-governmental organisation, Buwalo Matalikilo Trust (BMT), has called for an end to  gender based violence (GBV) in Hwange district in Matabeleland North Province and now seek partnerships with private companies to help fight the scourge, Business Times can report.

Zimbabwe, like the rest of the world, will commemorate 16 days of activism against GBV, which will run from November 25  until December 10.

“.…We are calling for an end to GBV. Women and girls face violence every single day. “However, the Covid-19 pandemic made the year a little more difficult for some.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, reports show that all types of violence against women have intensified, worsening this already pervasive human rights violation,” said Buwalo Matalikilo Trust BMT executive director Anna Ncube.

“Taking action to end the scourge of violence can feel overwhelming and insurmountable.”

She said her organisation was working with communities in Hwange district  on different projects with support from Safaids, Sonke and Norad.

“We initially started with 100 broiler chickens for the two communities that we are working with. We have now diversified to goat keeping, we have also diversified to roadrunners, to sweet potato production as well,” Ncube said.

She said most villagers travel longer distances to access services.

“ When talking about GBV prevention you are also talking about issues to do with the cost of accessing services. It may cost accessing service to a police station, access to a health centre. At times it’s not about travelling but it also about making phone calls to alert other members of the community that there is such a case here or alerting the police.

“We also appreciate that within Hwange rural district the police stations are far away from other people. At times one has to travel for almost 40 kilometers or so to access the nearest police station, or to access the nearest health service station. So that is costly when you are trying to prevent GBV  or when you are trying to support an increase in GBV reported cases, “said Ncube.

She said the projects are meant to bring in a source of income among the GBV action team members.

“We have been training the GBV action team members so that they are now more or less the first people to respond to GBV issues and cases. They will  then refer these cases to the police, village heads, health centres or other service providers who have the capacity to assist some of our GBV survivors.

“So these projects are meant to bring in a source of income so that they continue to do their work, responding to GBV as well as ensuring they also get a certain percentage of the income to support themselves within their households.”

Ncube said growing business units within communities will help create more job opportunities for the youths in the community.

“We are saying young people should be entrepreneurs who are able to generate employment for themselves,” she said.