ZICHIRE a Civil Society Organisation implementing community based public health programmes and building of resilient communities has taken their SAFE SPACE program to Uzumba, Maramba and Pfungwe (UMP) in a bid to educate communities on issues around Gender Based Violence (GBV), Sexual Reproductive Health (SRHR) among issues.
By Michael Gwarisa
In an interview with HealthTimes, ZICHIRE program manager, Mr Walter Chikanya said the training also incorporated sign Language Training for ZiCHIRe’s community cadres conducting SAFE SPACE program in UMP so as to cater even for people with disabilities who are also at the receiving end of GBV especially during disasters. The five days training was supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe (LCDZ)
We have got a humanitarian program that we run in Mudzi and UMP and in particular during this time of COVID-19 and lockdown. The issue is to create safe spaces for women who might fall prey to GBV, abuse through different means. As you know during disaster periods, women can suffer different types of abuses as they are the ones who look after the family and the children.
“You are looking at even getting water at watering points, they can be abused by men if you don’t have lighting at such places, they can fall prey to abuse. Also the allocation of resources that can be also manipulated and sexual exploitation can happen. For someone to get a bucket of maize, they can be asked for sexual favors and exploitation can happen,” said Mr Chikanya.
He added that the training was also conducted to ensure that fellow community members that are deaf or speech impaired can also be reached with lifesaving messages by the community cadres as they carry out their sessions in the community.
The training was conducted under strict screening and physical distancing guidelines in a bid to prevent the potential spread of the virus.
“In homes as we are in lockdown, abuse can happen with relatives, young women and also between husbands and wives. We have a program that seeks to create safe spaces for women where they can be safe and talk about all these issues and the create referrals about where they can get help.
“The training of sign language is our effort to then mainstream disability in all our programming to make sure we leave no one behind and we can reach out to everyone, particularly in this case those who are deaf who will need the sign language. We are training the health workers t be able to community with household occupants, women who might be deaf or children or young girls who might be vulnerable we have seen that people living with disabilities also fall prey to abuse.”
