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Gibson Mhaka
THEY sat patiently in one of the offices at the Womena��s Affairs Ministry and their sad, bruised faces are testimony to years of ill-treatment and severe beatings they have endured at the hands of their husbands and lovers.
One of the women, Martha Sibanda (25) from Mzilikazi suburb in Bulawayo, who looks older than her age, told this reporter that on many occasions her husband could tie her legs and hands and beat her throughout the night, while her mother-in-law listened in the other room and did nothing.
As she narrated her heart-rending story, a large tear appeared in her eye and dropped down her bony cheek. She said her husband started abusing her soon after their marriage as he was always accusing her of infidelity.
a�?I have been married for five years and in those years every day and night, my husband has been beating me and there is no one to support me. That is why I have turned to the Womena��s Affairs Ministry, to try and get help,a�? Sibanda said.
But her hopes of getting help are fading, as she complains that shea��s been coming here on a daily basis and just gets tossed from one office to another.
Sibanda is, however, a living testimony to thousands of women across the countrya��s length and breadth who are being raped, killed and abused every second but their voices are not heard, and their tears are never dry and they are looking up to someone to free them from the tyranny of their husbands.
Strangled, stabbed, hacked and beheaded are just some of the grisly or gruesome methods featuring in the media to describe the manner in which victims of gender-based violence, mostly women, had lost their lives at the hands of their husbands and lovers.
Gender experts are on record saying as a matter of urgency there was a need by the government to start establishing safe houses across the country to temporarily accommodate victims of domestic violence while their cases were being handled by the police or courts.
However, that call to provide clinical management to victims of gender based violence seems to have been answered last Friday by the official opening of a one-stop centre for survivors of gender-based violence at Gwanda Provincial Hospital.
The one-stop care centre at Gwanda Provincial Hospital is now the second in the country after one composed of counselling rooms, waiting space, training room and other basic facilities offering psychological, legal, medical, reproductive rights services, training and mentorship support was established in Harare in 2014 by Musasa Project.
Speaking during the official opening, Minister of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Nyasha Chikwinya castigated perpetrators of gender-based violence and called for strong legal representation for victims of gender-based violence so that perpetrators face the full wrath of the law.
a�?We are glad to have launched this massive project which is going to assist girls and women who would have suffered abuse, violence and rape.
a�?The project will see women survivors in need of immediate physical and mental protection provided with a safe home and with information to build their confidence and skills so as to increase their capacity to regain control of their lives free from violence.
a�?This one-stop care centre is unique in the sense that all that a woman requires after being tortured or abused can be found in one place.
a�?There would be counsellors waiting to give psychological support for confidentiality purposes. We are also calling for strong legal representation for victims of gender-based violence so that perpetrators face the full wrath of the law,a�? said Minister Chikwinya.
The model of a one-stop care centre is important for creating a safe and supportive environment for women and girls to seek immediate protection, medical treatment and legal assistance, although it is not cost-effective for all settings.
The centres are designed to reduce the number of institutions that a survivor must visit to receive basic support following an incident of violence by coordinating the assistance and referral process through one location.
An official from Emthonjeni Womena��s Forum which offers counselling, basic legal advice on issues affecting women and girls and awareness on gender rights, who preferred anonymity citing bureaucracy, said the facility which offers psychological, legal, medical, reproductive rights services, training and mentorship support would go a long way in helping victims of domestic violence.
a�?The centre will go a long way in empowering women who would have succumbed to gender-based violence. Frequently survivors of sexual and gender-based violence report that the way police, hospitals and courts are set up does not provide an appropriate atmosphere to report on violence.
a�?For example, police stations may lack private interview rooms or specially trained officers who know how to respond and interview female survivors.
a�?Hospitals may also lack private treatment rooms or the facilities to conduct the specialised examinations and analysis needed to provide the medical evidence that assists in prosecution of a legal case but all these are found at a one-stop centre,a�? she said.
A Bulawayo-based gender activist Thembelihle Moyo said many women in Zimbabwe despite enduring many forms of domestic violence were are afraid of reporting their husbands to the police fearing that if they got them arrested there would be no one to look after the children since most victims of gender-based violence are unemployed.
She said investment in safe houses help meet the multiple needs of survivors of gender based violence since these facilities offer psychological, legal, medical, reproductive rights services, training and mentorship support to abused women.
a�?Many victims of domestic violence are afraid of reporting their husbands to the police fearing that if he goes to jail they would have no one to look after the children. This fear is widespread because most of the victims of domestic violence are not employed.
a�?Others choose a protection order for the sake of material comfort and keeping the status of a�?being marrieda�? not knowing that a protection order is being misused by some male species to justify the abuse of their wives.
a�?So these facilities will help meet their (victims of gender-based violence) multiple needs.
a�?They offer psychological, legal, medical, reproductive rights services, training and mentorship support to abused women,a�? said Moyo.
These benefits and resources would remove barriers that keep many women trapped in abusive relations as studies have shown that poverty makes violence against women more likely to happen and more severe. .
Online Reporter