Potraz donates ICT equipment to First Lady’s GBV call centre

Tendai Rupapa Senior Reporter

THE Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) yesterday donated computers and equipment to First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s National Gender-Based Violence call centre in response to a request she put forward to better discharge of its services across the country.

This development will enhance call centre’s capacity to serve people in distress and curb domestic violence which sadly continues to rear its ugly head across the country.

Through the toll-free line 575, launched by the First Lady in 2021 and operated directly from her office, Gender-based Violence (GBV) victims are connected by her office to the police, emergency medical services and counselling services for immediate assistance.

The establishment of the call centre followed reports of a surge in GBV cases and the need for instant reporting and support to ensure the safety of the victims.

At times Dr Mnangagwa personally attends to the callers, giving them advice and linking them to respective stakeholders for assistance.

She also routinely invites victims and perpetrators to sit them down as a mother.

She is also equipping victims with skills and projects to ensure they earn income to sustain themselves.

Yesterday, Potraz director-general Dr Gift Machengete expressed delight to lend a hand to the First Lady’s tireless efforts to end violence in homes.

“We are here to support the National Gender-Based Violence call centre. We received a request from the First Lady for three computers to equip the centre which already had three other computers. As Potraz, we are involved in ensuring that the underprivileged and the under-served urban areas are also served and the underprivileged are taken care of so that no one is left behind.

“We have seen the First Lady’s vision which vision also resonates so well with assisting the underprivileged and those who are in distress and the National GBV Call Centre is one such project which will assist those who are being harassed through gender-based violence.

“It will also even assist the perpetrators. So this is the National GBV call centre which we believe is assisting Zimbabweans in a very big way and as Portraz, we found ourselves in it in terms of assisting to ensure that it functions efficiently and effectively,” he said.

The First Lady was elated that with the new machines, she was now able to accommodate more agents in the call centre and by so doing, serve a larger number of people than before.

“I wish to thank Dr Machengete and his team. When I wrote to them about the work that we are doing at the GBV call centre and the calls we are receiving across the whole country There is so much work in this call centre as we try by every means to serve all those who call. We are receiving calls from the whole country. There is a long queue of calls coming in and we had been failing to cater for all. We asked Dr Machengete to assist with computers and all the components that are required to add to what we have in order to serve our people,” she said.

The mother of the nation said the call centre had three agents from inception, but with the coming in of more equipment, she would add three more.

“The equipment that has come is going to take the other three so together, they will be six and it’s going to change for the better because what I want to see mostly is the coverage of problems that our people are facing in the domestic and family set up.”

“We need to help people so that people don’t continue fighting because we have seen that even some family members are killing each other,” she said.

Dr Mnangagwa said she had a keen interest in knowing challenges among people so that she could craft suitable solutions to avoid violence and foster unity, peace and social progress.

“I want to understand the problems. These are the ones we want to know and quickly come in to help and save lives. I want to thank Dr Machengete and his team for the quick response to come up with this equipment which is very important. In other words it’s not the First Lady alone doing it, Potraz have also come in to save the nation.

“I want to thank them very much and apart from that, Potraz has done quite a lot in our country and overall, I want to thank them for what they have done in the whole country with the computers they have put in schools.

“Our children, those who are mostly from rural areas, now can operate computers,” she said.

The call centre’s agent, Mrs Locardia Magobeya was upbeat about the newly-delivered machines.

“The national GBV call centre would like to thank Potraz for the kind gesture through the equipment because there has been an increase in the number of calls received. These include domestic violence, child abuse, drug and substance abuse among others. We would like to urge everyone facing domestic violence to call our toll-free line which is 575 and receive help,” she said.

The initiative by the First Lady is helping victims in accessing services to aid them in their circumstances.

She has traversed the length and breadth of the country speaking out against GBV while encouraging victims to report such cases.

When someone calls, an agent will listen carefully to determine the nature of the problem and assist the caller if there is no need for escalation. The agent determines the nature of support required basing on the caller’s need. When there is need for escalation, the agent will transfer the caller to the relevant service provider.