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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Senior Health Reporter
Increased efforts to raise awareness on gender-based-violence in communities have seen more assaults now being reported at Epworth’s One Stop Centre which is providing survivors with support services.
The centre, which started operating at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, was established jointly by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development and the Ministry of Health and Child Care, with technical support from UNFPA and financial support from the European Union, under the Spotlight Initiative.
Since then, a total of 1 711 survivors (1 593 females and 118 males) have accessed services at the centre. A problem with GBV is that, at least in the past, many of those assaulted felt there was no use in reporting the violence, hence the need to make it easier and safer to take action when assaulted.
Speaking during a visit to the centre, UNFPA East and Southern Africa regional director Ms Lydia Zigomo said the one stop centre was established to enable the residents to access all GBV services at one place making it easy for survivors to speak out and receive support.
“One stop centres are primarily focused on trying to respond to incidences of GBV in communities but are also increasingly taking on the role of raising awareness about GBV with the aim of preventing more cases arising in communities. They are an important intervention in the fight against GBV.
“What we are learning from these GBV one stop centres is that integration of services so that women and children can access them in one place in a holistic manner is extremely important,” she said.
The static OSC is complemented by a mobile one-stop centre and some community interventions to raise demand for services as well as create community awareness around GBV issues. These interventions include safe spaces, community mobilisation and surveillance.
Ms Zigomo said the mobile centres had helped to bring more people to the static centre thus enabling them to receive support.
“Epworth has 250 000 people and this is only one centre so we need more centres strategically located across Epworth to be able to meet the needs that have been generated by the awareness raising because more cases are coming up,” she added.
However, she said, some of the cases reported at the centre needed long term care and support and follow up hence there was need for more investment into ensuring the survivors could have that.
“Sustainability in terms of being able to go for the long term with survivors until they are empowered and can stand on their own.”
“That requires more development partners to invest in this but also the private sector should invest in this approach because the more women and girls can live violence-free lives, the more they can be productive,” said Ms Zigomo.
Ms Annalisah Muzenda, the administrator for the Epworth one-stop centre, said they provided counselling services along with legal aid and health services while the ZRP victim friendly unit was also stationed there to ensure smooth referral in the justice system.
“Survivors visit the centre traumatised and they need emotional relief so the counselling helps alleviate the emotional trauma and helps them to make informed decisions. They are advised of the services available to them and they can then make decisions to access them or not,” she said.
Ms Muzenda said the centre operated through a network with other stakeholders to ensure holistic service provision. Through the links, survivors had managed to access temporary shelters, antenatal care booking for pregnant women and transport to hospital for extreme cases of violence.
“We have seen many extreme cases of violence and this month has been one of the worst. We receive survivors who are bruised, swollen and some have been scarred for life. We have seen extreme cases of sexual abuse like the rape case that involved a two-year-old minor which happened here in Epworth. We have also had extreme physical violence cases where the survivor was killed and another was axed by the husband,” she said.
Violence against women and girls remains the most pervasive human rights violation around the world. According to statistics, one in every three women aged 15 to 49 in Zimbabwe have experienced physical violence and about 1 in 4 women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
For Ms Tarisai Warikandwa (34), visiting the centre had helped to resolve the fights she always had with her husband.
“For years, my husband was physically and verbally abusive towards me and the children. Once he got drunk, he would become so violent that none of our neighbours could master the courage to intervene. At first I was afraid of coming here to report him but I finally gathered the courage and I was advised to apply for a protection order. We went to court and our case was heard and solved.
“Now my situation is much better, he is no longer abusive and we are now living in harmony and even the children are now happier,” she said.
The interventions of behaviour change facilitators has also been instrumental in breaking the silence around GBV issues.
Ms Priscilla Rongoti said their job as behaviour change facilitators was to raise awareness in the community and also refer cases of GBV and child abuse to the one stop centre for assistance.
“We get to hear about some of the cases from the community during our awareness raising campaigns in churches, boreholes and schools. We have many disadvantaged children in schools who are abused and we encourage them to report cases of GBV or sexual violence even at family level. Due to the work that we are doing, cases are increasing, people know that there is someone in the community who can help them get assistance,” she said.
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