The Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD) launched the #WeAreEqual Campaign on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at a banquet ceremony held in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek.
The campaign is aimed at closing the gender gap on the African continent in line with the African Union Agenda 2063, which seeks to eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls in order for them to fully enjoy their human rights.
These rights pertain to social, economic and political rights.
Speaking at the event, Madam Monica Geingos, President of the Organization and First Lady of Namibia, stated that forty-five (45) African First Ladies have signed up to the organization, and thirty-seven are currently active.
She stressed that inequality manifests itself in every aspect of society, including health care, education, safety and security, and economic participation, and that future generations will have to deal with the consequences of inequalities that are not addressed today.
“There are so many women graduating out of universities, but the statistics are telling us they are not getting into the workforce, and when they do, they are not getting promoted… We must fix these disparities for the sake of our children and our sake as well,” Geingos said to huge applause from the audience.
She explained, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) report on the gender gap, the world would need 135 years to completely close the gender gap between men and women.
The Vice President of Namibia, Nangolo Mbumba, delivered the keynote address at the event, which was attended by various stakeholders, including the Namibian Ombudsman, the Deputy Minister of Health and the Chinese and American Ambassadors to Namibia.
He noted that the organization, which was launched in Congo Kinshasa in June this year, brings together high-ranking government officials from the continent, the private sector, stakeholders, and partners to advance the interests of women on the African continent.
“Women and men both possess the same inherent dignity and the same rights and have the same potential to build our societies regardless of our gender. With this campaign, we want to bring home an essential truth: WE ARE EQUAL,” Mbumba declared.
The Vice President said that despite this truth, the reality faced by many women in Africa tells a different story, and Namibia is no exception.
He highlighted that no country has achieved gender parity because women and girls experience inequality in agriculture, land ownership, economic opportunities, income, politics, and other areas. He insisted that this impacts economic development. He added that although Namibia is the most gender-equal country in Africa and the eighth-most equal country in the world, more still needs to be done.
The #WeAreEqual Campaign is an initiative by African First Ladies to close the gender gap on the continent by supporting initiatives aimed at empowering women.
Dar es Salaam — Widespread economic doldrums and the rising wave of moral decay have forced an unprecedented number of female journalists into the trap of sexual bribery where they exchange sex for job offers.
According to the research, titled Sexual Harassment Among Women Journalists in Media Houses conducted by Tanzania Media Women Association(TAMWA)—a local charity working to protect women’s rights, the root causes include poor pay, professional incompetency which force women journalists to offer sexual bribery to secure their jobs, ethical misconduct, immoral behavior, lack of professionalism and abuse of office.
Moral Trade-off
The report, seen by Ubuntu Times found women in the media experienced sextortion a form of non-monetary bribes by senior editors and managers which exposed them to moral compromise to exchange sex for employment.
Widespread Phenomenon
Sextortion—a form of corruption that employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from a victim, is a serious problem in Tanzania.
People entrusted with power in organizations such as editors or educators often abuse authority to suit their sexual fantasies.
The survey which was conducted in Dar es Salaam suggests, 48% of the respondents faced sexual discrimination at work, while 52% refused to comment on the matter which is a crime according to Tanzania laws.
Culture Of Shame
A culture of shame widely embraced by society has made it increasingly hard for victims to come forward, according to women’s rights groups.
Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam two weeks ago TAMWA’s Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, John Ambrose said the survey involved freelancers, journalists with short-term contracts, and trainee reporters.
The research, which involved senior editors, media managers, journalism colleges, and non-governmental organizations, revealed some incompetent female journalists often lure their bosses for sex to get favors, and in other cases, editors force trainee reporters into sexual affairs.
“Most female journalists are incompetent but since they still want to retain their jobs, so they’ve to seduce their bosses to protect their jobs,” the survey finds.
Inappropriate Relations
The findings further say the problem is largely fuelled by trainee reporters since most of them are often jostling to establish inappropriate relations with senior editors in the hope to get employed upon completion of their studies.
“Most female reporters find themselves caught up in sexual trap whenever they want to enter in a radio or TV studio,” the survey says.
Rose Reuben, TAMWA’s Executive Director, however, said sexual bribery does not only affect female reporters but also male journalists who find themselves entangled in a dangerous moral trade-off.
“Many female journalists experience this problem but they don’t think it’s cause for concern, I ask them to raise their voice against this social malady,” she said.
Researchers have recommended the enactment of a clear-cut gender policy that explicitly spells out sexual corruption as a violation of human rights.
According to her the policy on sexual bribery in newsrooms and frequent reminders should help in resolving the problem.
As part of efforts to fight sexual harassment at work, Tanzania’s Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), recently launched a special campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of sexual corruption.
Under the banner of “kataa rushwa ya ngono,” Swahili meaning, “reject sexual corruption,” trained officials were scheduled to educate people on how to avoid the social malady.
A Criminal Offense
While sexual bribery is criminalized in Tanzania, campaigners say the law is too weak to deter perpetrators who often pay fines and walk scot-free.
Section 25 of Tanzania’s anti-corruption law of 2007 states: “Anybody being in the position of power or authority, who in the exercise of his authority, demands or imposes sexual favours, or any other favours on any person as a condition for giving employment, a promotion, a right, a privilege, or any other preferential treatment, commits an offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine of not exceeding five million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both.”
In Tanzania, where nearly nine in every 10 women have experienced sexual harassment, activists say awareness campaigns against it can potentially raise the momentum to curb it.
A group of women gather on a synthetic lawn one Sunday in Labone, a suburb of Accra.
Clad in sports gear, they pick up little tricks from an instructor to defend themselves from attackers who may be twice their size.
Despite the roundhouse and elbow strikes being taught, the surface goal of the class was simple – give yourself a chance to run.
With a society that stacks the odds against women, there are few options better than running for women faced with the threat of sexual and gender-based violence.
The idea of self-defense classes in Accra is rare, so the quirkily named The Boring Talkative support group saw an opportunity to add another layer to its advocacy with this move to empower women who are justified in their fears.
Just how hostile is Ghanaian society towards women?
This is a question that at times prompts comparisons to horrific accounts of violence against women in notorious countries like South Africa or India.
Some have called this a subtle form of gaslighting that ignores an insidious problem that prompted the various forms of advocacy from The Boring Talkative.
Farida Yusif, the founder of the Boring Talkative, wanted to create a safe space for women with her group, especially women victims of physical and sexual abuse, and make sure they were heard.
“We are constantly faced with threats of someone trying to attack us,” she said to Ubuntu Times after a second meeting of the class back in 2020.
By the strict definition, one could set a watch by the kinds of sexual violence women and girls in Ghana face daily.
Unwanted sexual comments or physical contact all count as sexual violence. The former is rampant online.
Incidents of sexual and gender-based violence are grossly underreported and the police is not able to effectively investigate cases.
In a lot of instances, some victims are even priced out of justice.
As at 2019, doctors were charging 300 to 800 cedis ($51 to $137) to fill out police medical forms for rape victims and 1,000 to 2,000 cedis ($171 to $343) for medical opinions in legal processes.
Idrissa Hamdiya, a school teacher in Accra, was one of the participants in the self-defense class and she is very aware of these threats to women and the role they play in propping each other up.
For her helping survivors of sexual violence isn’t just about coping with trauma.
“Statistics show that for most people who have been raped once, the probability is high that they are going to get raped again,” she notes.
“When we talk about ladies who go through sexual harassment and all that, first we have to help them heal emotionally and we also have to teach them to defend themselves.”
The women are constantly reminded by their instructor that the goal is to create an opportunity to run. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times
Idrissa seemed impressed with her experience in the class and wished more women had such an opportunity.
She, like some of the women in the self-defense class, was mindful of their privileged position.
They didn’t need reminding that they were but a drop in the bucket of a larger fight.
Ghanaian society needs a new awareness of the threat posed to women if it is to get safer, stresses Farida.
She says her ultimate goal is “to educate people and reorient our society and help us unlearn certain attitudes that oppress women.”
On the other side of Accra in Haatso, Doreen Raheena Sulleyman, a journalist and women’s advocate, was nursing her second of two daughters, having recently delivered.
She is worried about the Ghana she will have to bring up her daughter in and is especially vexed by the casual grooming of children, some barely old enough for pre-school.
Doreen recalled to Ubuntu Times she once had cause to dress down a male shop keeper who spoke inappropriately to her daughter.
This is a pathway to sexual abuse she is hyper-aware of and one she will never indulge.
“Those things agitate me. They get on my nerves easily,” she says.
With her journalism, she has tried to highlight the issue of gender violence both on and offline.
She has found that state institutions like the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit have not only done little by way of enforcement but not offered much support to reporters striving for in-depth coverage.
For example, there doesn’t appear to be any recent organized data on gender-based violence according to suggestions from a police source to Ubuntu Times.
“It would be most disappointing if that were the case,” the source said with worry.
Recently in Ghana’s Parliament, the Minority leader also complained that relevant committees had not been privy to any crime data since 2016.
The most visible data on sexual violence available appears to be from a UK-funded report commissioned by Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
The commitment of Ghana’s Ministry for Gender to protecting women has been questioned by critics. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times
It showed that 30 percent of women (older than 15) experienced sexual violence at least once over their lifetime.
Doreen also works outside of mainstream media because support for her passion is lacking from the architecture of established media organizations.
She also questions the ethics of mainstream media in reporting on sexual and gender-based violence.
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by observers.
A 2018 research article by BMC Women’s Health came to the conclusion that media framing of violence against women was in Ghana “episodic in nature” and normally reported without wider social context.
The article also raised concerns with the victim-blaming language that was largely used in the news articles.
It is common to see news reports that recklessly put out the identities of victims of gender-based violence.
Doreen on the other hand says she once went as far as preparing a Non-Disclosure Agreement for victims of sexual violence she once interviewed for a story.
“They didn’t request for it but I just wanted them to feel safe, to feel secure, to feel okay to pour everything out,” she says.
Like The Boring Talkative, she too believes ultimate safety for women will come when Ghanaian society unlearns the norms that foment a hostile environment for women.
For this to happen, the state will have to take charge with shaping narratives, she says.
Private media may be popular but it seldom commits to issues like gender-based violence unless there is a sensational angle.
“If it is not bringing them [private media] money, they will not worry themselves about it,” Doreen remarks.
That leaves the state which owes its women a safer society, she insists.
And this will come about through better education – education that is so far non-existent.
“The Social Welfare Department is there. The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit is there and I don’t even know what they are doing,” Doreen says with frustration.
She further ropes in Ghana’s National Commission for Civic Education and Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection in this regard.
In as much as she distrusts the press’ handling of matters of gender-based violence, people outside metropolitan areas really only have broadcast media as their main source of information.
And the state media is best positioned to cast the widest net given its obvious reach and influence outside metropolitan areas.
“Whatever they hear from the news they believe it so they rely on the media for so many things,” reminds Doreen.
“Why can’t the Ministry of Gender set up a TV channel specifically for education on sexual violence? They can get people to educate in numerous languages being spoken across Ghana.”
Issues bordering on sexual conduct have never been mainstream in Ghana and as things stand, no conversations on sexual and gender-based violence in public schools or even churches and Doreen says this needs to change.
She tries to do her bit when she can.
“The culture of silence has a huge impact on us. Me, I try as much as possible to talk to my age mates who have children and other women,” she says.
“When it comes to issues of gender-based violence, I am not shy about me. It invigorates me.”
Beryl Darkwa, a fellow coordinator of the Boring Talkative’s activities also believes the buck stops with the state.
“For us to see proper change; for us to feel the change we are hoping for, the state must help. The state must step in,” she says.
“Like it or not, sexual and gender-based violence is also a Ghanaian problem. It is not just a Ghanaian women’s problem.”
Farida (L) and Beryl (R) encourage the women to open up about some unpleasant experiences. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times
In the meantime, as we wait for some significant change, women like Farida, Beryl and Doreen want to encourage victims to speak out more.
“We should be able to normalize talking about the trauma that happens to us because if we don’t do it, more people get away with these things,” Beryl says.
With the lack of support from the state, the only allies women probably have are themselves.
Though Beryl feels shared fears and traumas connect women, it is also a “sisterhood” that gives her hope.
“Even though they are individual traumas. It is something every other woman can relate to. So it is important that women band together.”
Every morning, a harmonious voice crosses the airwaves and finally lands in the countryside of Kajiongo village in Tharaka Nithi county. Here it meets people shut from modernization, and wake them up to the rhythm of the day.
The voice is Mwenda Antu radio. A community-based radio airing vernacular educational programs, updates and entertainment in this geographic location.
Just a few months ago, the little community could be accessed only through a one-way path that came to a dead end. However, the radio facilitated the opening of the village by forwarding their grievances to elected officials who responded by initiating the construction of abandoned roads.
This was briefly after the first case of Coronavirus was reported in the country. At that time, the radio had found itself with a challenge of reaching out to people.
A new road under construction in the rugged terrain of Kajiongo village has enabled Village HopeCore to provide maternal healthcare to many women. Kelvin Mutugi / Ubuntu Times
Today, a network of roads converges at this community. Some constructed and others are underway.
”The road here was demarcated before independence. It had begun to disappear until Mwenda Antu radio came, and we expressed our challenges to our elected representatives,” says Muriuki, 65, as he points to the trail of road under construction.
Tractors winding up the construction of the road linking Kajiongo community to the Nairobi-Meru highway. Kelvin Mutugi / Ubuntu Times
Besides acting as the intermediary between the people and their representatives, the radio seeks to fill the literacy gap by offering educational programs. Occasionally, agricultural and health experts are invited to extend their knowledge to the residents.
Evidently, improved agricultural practices have increased their produce giving them enough food during challenging times of the drought and pandemic.
In the complex world of cutting-edge technology, a radio would not seem useful. This is not the case for Kajiongo community.
Constructed roads which now link this remote village has enabled Village HopeCore, a non-profit organization, to provide home-based maternal healthcare to girls and women, having reached more than 500 homes so far.
HopeCore loading up the vehicles to distribute hand washing tanks to the community. Credit: Village HopeCore
Village HopeCore is committed to eradicating poverty in the villages through mobile health care, education, and empowerment.
“We provide hold educational meet up with girls and women while providing mobile healthcare,” says Mutwiri, a field health practitioner for Village HopeCore.
Through the agency of over 200 trained community health volunteers, Hopecore mobile healthcare programs have managed to help many vulnerable girls in these communities.
Teenage girls receive sanitary towels at Mwimbi and Muthambi sub-county. Credit: Village HopeCore
For instance, Acosta, who is a community health volunteer, was notified about an incident where a 17-year-old girl from Ikumbo community had decided to get rid of her pregnancy by drinking a bottle of bleach.
She had no one to support her, so he visited and referred her to Magutuni sub-county hospital. Even then, she was determined to commit suicide. Through relentless effort, he advised and counseled her until she eventually accepted her situation and agreed to attend ANC clinics. Currently, she is relaxed and awaiting delivery.
Community health volunteers gather with social distancing measures to receive training on how to educate and promote prevention measures on COVID-19 in their communities. Credit: Village HopeCore
For many women, the thoughts of pregnancy bring on a feeling of excitement. However, for teenage girls, forced into adulthood with hard decisions to make, it’s associated with uncertainty, fear and anxiety.
Equally important, Village Hopecore reaches out to school girls and give them free sanitary pads (enough to last for 6 months). Frequently, lack of sanitary towels lead them to engage in ‘sex for pads.’ Thereafter, they educate them on menstrual hygiene management and sexual reproductive health and rights.
HopeCore educate Girls on sex health rights. Credit: Village HopeCore
According to the Grace Cup report, 65% of girls and women in Kenya cannot afford sanitary pads due to poverty. 1 in every 10 Kenyan adolescent girl ends up missing school during her menstruation period which affects her performance.
“We know that young girls who get pregnant do not access healthcare services like adult females because of the judgment,” said Ademola Olajide, the United Nations Population Fund representative in Kenya.
That makes them more vulnerable to health complications and unsafe abortions, he added.
Globally, pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls aged between 15 and 19, according to the World Health Organization.
Mwenda Antu radio and Village HopeCore are among many other organizations giving hope to vulnerable populations.
Whereas the pandemic has impacted many aspects of our society, reproductive healthcare is among the worst hit.
Two months ago a video surfaced on social media appearing to show a woman on labor delivering outside the gate of a reputable hospital while Health workers neglected her. It was devastating to many.
Furthermore, in recent past cases of babies disappearing from maternal units of renowned health centers in the country have raised concern about the effectiveness of reproductive healthcare particularly during COVID-19.
On the other hand, teenage pregnancies have been an obstacle, keeping thousands of adolescent girls out of school for years. Now as the students stay at home in a bid to curb the spread of the virus, more incidences have been reported.
While the social aspect of the inequality — which entails the difference in people’s physical well-being and access to livelihood opportunities such as wealth and education — affects many women overall, their plight has increased in rural areas due to lack of resources and poor infrastructure.
According to Kenya’s 2010 constitution (intended to improve the welfare of Kenya’s marginalized groups), women must have at least a third of seats in parliament and a third of appointed positions. However, the law has been difficult to apply.
The fact that the cases of girls’ and women’s rights violations keep rising, is an indication that even though they have representatives to speak for them, in most cases they are never heard.
Nyeri, Kenya — On a chilly Tuesday morning at the Consolata Mission Hospital in Kenya’s Nyeri County, Jane Kagwiria attends to patients and visitors at the gate as they come into the hospital. She checks their temperatures and ensures they follow the COVID-19 rules to wash their hands and maintain a social distance before entrance. She is a security guard at the hospital.
The 27-year-old mother of one, was able to get all these skills from the training she received from Amref Health Africa through the EU COVID-19 Response Programme. As a security guard, a vital part of her work is providing information about the virus to people coming to the hospital.
Kagwiria answers a phone call at her security office at the Consolata Mission Hospital. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
Kagwiria continues to educate her community on the importance of adhering to prevention measures to curb the spread of the disease. Because of her dedication and passion in her work, she was chosen by the hospital management to be part of the hospital’s COVID-19 response team.
“When we first attended the training, there were some forms we were supposed to fill but after filling, the person in charge of training looked at the list and asked who I was and what a security guard was doing at a health workers’ training. I had put my name among those of doctors and nurses,” she says. ”But after explaining myself and my passion, I was allowed to attend and complete the training.
Kagwiria is also a student at the Sister Leonella Consolata Medical College that is housed by the hospital. She is studying preoperative theatre technology, a course she says has been the best challenge in her life and one that she says will fulfill her dream.
Kagwiria checks patient temperature using a thermo gun at the gate to the hospital. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
But, even as she climbs up the ladder of life and succeeds in what she does right now, Kagwiria’s past life has not been a walk in the park.
In 2006 at age 11, she ran away from her home when her father wanted her to get circumcised so she could be married off.
“My father who was a drunkard at the time wanted me to get married after getting circumcised. I thought to myself that I couldn’t continue with that life and so I decided to run away,” she says.
Kagwiria walks along the pavements at the hospital towards the theater. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
She then went to the priest at their church and explained to him what had happened and he took her to a nun with whom she lived and worked as a house help at Nkubu in Meru County where she was born.
She then met another priest while at Nkubu and being a jovial kid and an active Sunday school pupil, he asked her what she would like after she explained to him she had run away from home. “I told him that I would wish to go back to school,” she says.
Kagwiria prepares theater equipment for use by the surgeon ahead of a surgery. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
The priest agreed and took her back to school, this time to a boarding school, where she sat her primary school exam three years later and passed. She then joined a secondary school and after four years, she sat her high school final year exams.
She then went back to her previous employer who was a nurse to work again as a house help, and she was welcomed. A few months later, Kagwiria joined some youth who were looking for a job at a security company. After going through an interview, she was hired.
“That was the beginning of my career as a security guard. As I went through training, my former high school principal gave me pocket money to survive through training. And when I started working, I was posted to St. Teresa Mission Hospital where I met a man who was a doctor there and fell in love with. I got pregnant with my son but he wanted me to have an abortion. He gave me money but I did not take it as I felt that my child’s life was more important,” she explains.
Kagwiria hands an equipment to the surgeon during the surgery. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
Kagwiria now works for AND Security Company Ltd and is stationed at the Consolata Mission Hospital at Mathari in Nyeri. Here, she is praised as being the best.
Regina Kajuju, the Quality Assurance Manager at the hospital says that she met Kagwiria in 2018 when she was employed to work at the gate as a security guard.
Kagwiria assists her son with homework at home. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
“Despite the fact that she has been working at the gate, she is so much attached to the patients. She has even gone ahead to join the college when she heard of an opportunity to train as a theatre technician. That was her own initiative, not being sponsored by the hospital,” Kajuju says.
Jane Kagwiria sweeping the veranda with her son. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
Father Lucas Gatero, the Assistant Director at the Archdiocese of Nyeri (ADN) Security Company Limited also confirms the same.
“She has been the best we have in the company and have, in several occasions added her responsibilities. There was a time we wanted to move her to another workstation but even the hospital management opposed it, saying she was their best guard at the hospital gate,” Father Gatero says of Kagwiria.
Kagwiria feeds her chicken at a small hutch near her house. Credit: Dominic Kirui / Ubuntu Times
Kagwiria is now almost completing her studies and is left with an internship where she is attached to the hospital and working at the theatre as an intern. She is on unpaid leave at the security company, but still volunteers to work there and help out during the pandemic.
Ganyurey, Kenya August 10 — It is 4 PM in the evening, and Halima Hassan, a pupil in Ganyurey Primary School, has just returned from a COVID-19 pandemic awareness session ready to help her mother in milking camels.
As a 12-year old and in class seven, Halima is among hundreds of girls in Ganyurey village in Wajir County striving to escape from the curse of forced early marriages that are turning out to be one of the outdated cultural practices still rampant in the region.
Halima was nearly being forced into early marriage to a 69 years old man but she resisted and insisted on pursuing her education to the disbelief of her parents.
And she has now joined forces with gender and good cultural practices advocates to tame the perpetrators of this entrenched, heinous, backward, and exploitative culture.
According to statistics from the Wajir County Social Services office, between 2005 to 2014 an estimated 2,000 forced and early child marriages cases were reported in the County.
And the youngest girls to be forcefully married were eight years old and were married to old men aged between 60 to 94 years old.
These alarming statistics also show that the sexual pests escaped justice by just paying a number of goats or cattle to the parents of the affected girls.
Data availed by Wajir County Social Services office shows that between 2005 to 2014 an estimated 3,000 goats and 5,000 cattle were paid as dowry to parents of the underage girls forced into early marriage.
Miss Halima Hassan stands near school book store at Ganyurey Primary School. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
These horrendous statistics have elicited outrage among Wajir County residents resulting in Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) like Frontier Indigenous Network to come up with initiatives to curb and eradicate cases of the girl child forced early marriages.
According, Mrs. Naima Abdi, a program officer with, Frontier Indigenous Network, a women rights advocacy organization, one way they have come up with to deal with the problem of child marriages is to establish literacy centers dubbed “safe spaces” to help sensitize the communities in Wajir County on why they should disregard forced early marriages and foster the education of the girl child.
“The safe spaces idea was meant to address the rampant problem of child marriage and female genital cutting menace, but it has also evolved into tackling other societal issues like creating awareness on COVID-19 pandemic, fake news peddled by conservative elders and individuals supporting religious fundamentalism,’’ Mrs. Abdi says.
The initiative known as girls’ and boys’ spaces offers school-going children a platform to engage and share ideas on issues affecting them at their villages and schools and provide mentors to moderate their discussions.
So far, the initiative has assisted the school going children to engage on various issues like girl child education, fighting outdated cultural practices like female genital mutilation, early forced marriages and climate change, and environmental conservation awareness among other issues.
According to United Children Fund (UNICEF), Kenya has the 20th highest absolute number of child brides in the world – 527,000 and 23 percent of Kenyan girls are married before their 18th birthday and 4 percent are married before the age of 15.
Every day, Halima treks for some two kilometers from her village to attend awareness sessions at the nearby “safe space” center amid hostile weather and temperatures that at times reach 36 degrees Celsius.
Today, Halima is one of the mentors to her colleagues at their village “safe space” center where she narrates the horrendous experiences she went through in resisting being married to a 69-year old man.
Students playing outside Ganyurey Primary School, Wajir Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
And even with all the health protocols introduced by the Ministry of Health and County Governments to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the girls attending “safe space” centers have maintained social-distancing and other preventive measures.
Initially, the “safe spaces” were hubs for school going girls and boys to discuss critical issues and suggest solution and action plans at school level while engaging teachers and the school administration, but since the Coronavirus outbreak they have evolved into also educating local communities about the dangers posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amongst the key challenges tackled by the initiative, is fighting adverse fake news on the pandemic like allegations that the disease is a biological weapon targeting Muslims.
In one of the mentoring sessions, Halima tells her colleagues how one day she arrived back home from school and found a group of elders had gathered at her father’s home to offer a marriage proposal for her and discuss dowry with the family.
Halima a fourth born in a family of six and the only daughter, said she was gripped by fear on being told what was happening, but she gathered courage to tell-off her parents and the gathered crowd.
“I was carrying a load of firewood when I saw a group of women outside our family home dancing and ululating and their dressing code was that of a dowry negotiation ceremony. I was shocked, terrified, and felt pain all over my body. But I gathered confidence and told myself that I was going to resist,’’ she said.
Halima who was eventually rescued from the forced early child marriage scheme by her parents told her colleagues at Ganyurey Primary School Wajir County, during one of the mentoring sessions.
Ganyurey Primary school students and teachers standing outside the safe space zone after conducting a session. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
At the time, Halima was barely 12 years old and her parents were negotiating for a dowry to marry her to a 69-year old man.
She said her mother also objected to the plan forcing her father to engage her in secret consultation before her mother ordered the elders to leave her homestead.
Her father was salivating for 10 head of cattle her suitor was offering after her father lost his entire herd due to prolonged drought.
This development indicates that climate change is also playing a pivotal role in the rampant cases of forced early marriages in semi-arid and arid regions in Kenya.
According to the Executive Director with Wagalla Centre for Peace and Human Rights, Mr. Adan Garad, climate change, and now COVID-19 pandemic are playing a role in increased cases of forced early marriages in Wajir County.
“Increased cases of forced early marriages in Wajir County can partly be blamed on a combination of climatic shocks and effects of COVID-19,” Mr Garad said.
As part of her community initiatives, Halima who is now a “safe spaces” mentor together with officials of Frontier Indigenous Network decided to pass the controversial topic of forced early marriages to school heads and boards that have resulted in well-structured awareness campaigns.
Currently, there is prompt action from schools whenever their pupils or students report incidents of attempted forced early marriages.
Women returning to their homes after attending a safe space session in Ganyurey Primary School. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
The school’s management then summons affected girl’s parents and inform them it was against Kenyan law to wed under age school going girls and are enlightened on the importance of educating girls.
According to Mrs. Muslima Mohamed, a teacher in one of the local schools in Wajir County, the “safe spaces” initiative has greatly improved enrollment of girls in both primary and secondary schools.
“We are very grateful to the “safe spaces” initiative because we are seeing the results and we are asking both the county government and the national government to support such initiatives,” Mrs. Mohamed said.
The impact of the “safe spaces” initiative has made the Frontier Indigenous Network establish 25 school and community safe spaces supporting more than 1,000 students and youth and reaching out to 4,000 Wajir West villagers.
“The impact made us increase the spaces to 25 and the initiative has so far stopped 398 planned forced early child marriages from 2015 to 2020 and further disrupted 400 such marriage organized under COVID-19 period,’’ Mrs. Amran Abdundi, Executive Director of Frontier Indigenous Network says.
The “safe spaces” initiative is going to be remembered as a community-based project that tackled a key problem in addressing the education of the girl child in Wajir County.
Global women’s and girls’ rights campaigners have hailed the move by Sudan’s transitional government to criminalize Female Genital Mutilation but warned that it will take a while for the country to entirely eradicate the ritual.
The country’s amendment to the criminal code law passed last week makes it illegal for anyone to perform the ritual, imposing a penalty of up to three years imprisonment, according to Sudanese Foreign Ministry.
Nearly nine out of 10 Sudanese women aged 15 to 49 have been cut. Girls are usually cut between the ages of five and 15.
Many of them went through a procedure known as infibulation, or ‘pharaonic circumcision’, in which all or part of the inner and outer labia, and usually the clitoris, are removed by a traditional birth attendants.
The new law was approved by the Sudanese council of ministers on 22 April but still needs endorsement by members of the sovereign council formed after ousting of the former dictator Omar al-Bashir.
“No doubt this article will contribute in addressing one of the most dangerous social practices, which constitutes a clear violation against and a crime against women’s rights,” says Sudanese foreign ministry in a statement.
The ministry said the move is an advanced step aimed at obliterating a predominant socially-rooted malady adding that Sudanese authorities have what it takes to respect and protect women’s social and health rights.
The Sudanese foreign ministry said in order for the new law to be effectively enforced, it requires community effort and coordination between parties in raising awareness against the crime through community outreach programs.
The move, which shows the government’s commitment to international human rights agreements, has been hailed by global charities including Equality Now — a leading charity tracking women and girls’ rights as important.
Flavia Mwagnovya, Equality Now’s Global Lead for End Harmful Practices program told Ubuntu Times in an email that introducing a law that criminalizes the practice is crucial since it asserts that FGM grossly violates women’s and girls’ rights.
“The law is a powerful tool when combating harmful… FGM and it defines the obligations that a government has committed to in providing protection,” she said.
According to her, in countries like Sudan where FGM is deeply entrenched in culture and social norms, having a law alone is inadequate to end the practice.
She called for public awareness initiatives that explicitly state FGM is now a crime under the law and the dangers of it are crucial, alongside positive social engagement.
“Legislation is a strategy that should be implemented hand-in-hand with sufficiently funded and resourced programs that educate communities about why FGM is harmful and criminalized,” she said.
According to her, government agencies, law enforcement, healthcare professionals and midwives, women rights organizations, funders, and community leaders, need to work together.
After years of brutal oppression under former dictator Omar al-Bashir, campaigners say women in Sudan have demonstrated that they have a voice and agency, and are able to shape the political agenda to achieve change.
Global charities have been campaigning for the end of legal and cultural barriers that violate women’s and girls’ rights, and to them criminalizing FGM is a significant victory on the road to gender equality.
“As Sudan continues its political transformation it is vital that women are fully represented in decision making, and going forward, we anticipate celebrating further gains in women’s legal rights in the country,” said Mwangovya.
According to her FGM perpetrators can now be held to account and this is an important deterrent since people are less likely to act when they know there are legal consequences.
“It also gives protection to those at risk and provides survivors with means to access justice,” she said.
Achieving systemic and lasting change, however, requires altering attitudes and behavior towards women and girls, she said.
“The Sudanese Government’s decision to criminalize FGM is timely given that huge investments have been made over the years to sensitize the population against it.”
By making this legal amendment, analysts say Sudan will be adhering to the African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women, which they have yet to ratify.
Since the practice is deeply rooted in Sudanese culture, campaigners say it will take a while to be completely wiped off.
“There is so much work to be done. This is a start, a good start,” says Fatma Naib, communications officer of the UN children’ agency UNICEF, in Sudan.
“The crucial step will be to ensure there are consequences for those who perform the cut on their girls,” she said.
FGM involves the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia for non-medical reasons.
The UN estimates that 200 million women and girls globally have undergone FGM.
Imtenan Fatema, a 25-year old Sudanese woman whose parents subjected her to cutting told Ubuntu Times in an interview that many parents are now abandoning the practice.
“I am very happy for my country, our children will never again suffer from this brutality,” she told Ubuntu Times in an interview organized by a local Sudanese Journalist in Khartoum.
HARARE — She said her husband choked her, pounded her with open fists, and knocked her head on the wall before grabbing a thick leather belt which he used to whip her.
Today, over 21 days after Zimbabwe embarked upon a lockdown against COVID-19, Tracy Mukwende, who is aged 41 years, said her husband is languishing in jail.
The 48-year old husband, Denis was found guilty of causing serious bodily harm and sentenced to three years in prison in the middle of Zimbabwe’s lockdown.
For Tracy and Denis, a lockdown that was meant to be a time to bond rather turned into a conflict that has landed the latter in jail.
“I couldn’t do anything to stop my husband from constantly attacking me during the lockdown; I tried to endure, but failed and ended up reporting him to police; he abused me over very minor issues — for instance on the day I reported him he had beaten me for not serving him supper on time,” Tracy told Ubuntu Times.
Women in a community in Norton, a town 30 kilometers west of Harare the Zimbabwean capital end of 2018 gathered to demonstrate against rising cases of domestic violence in their area. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Yet, the two are not the only ones that have fallen apart during Zimbabwe’s lockdown.
There are ballooning cases of domestic violence as couples such as Tracy and Denis in Zimbabwe find more time together indoors, forced by coronavirus.
In less than two weeks into Zimbabwe’s initial 21-day lockdown, Musasa Project, a local non-governmental organization, said it had documented at least 782 cases of abuse compared to an average of 500 per month.
“We believe from the trends that we’re seeing that domestic violence is going to escalate,” said Rotina Musara, an advocacy program officer with Musasa Project.
Musasa Project concurs with the Women Coalition of Zimbabwe, a network of women rights activists and women’s organizations.
“As the lockdown continues we are concerned about the likelihood of an increase in gender-based violence (GBV) cases. At this stage GBV services need to be classified as essential services,” Ronika Mumbire, board chairperson of the Women in Zimbabwe Coalition, told Ubuntu Times.
A group of women from various civil society groups in October 2015 gathered in the Zimbabwean capital Harare demonstrating against sexual abuse in workplaces. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
A day before the expiration of Zimbabwe’s 21-day lockdown which begun on March 30, the country’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a 14-day extension of the same saying the country had not yet met the World Health Organization benchmarks to warrant the lifting of a lockdown.
To couples confined in their homes by the marauding pandemic, the move has not been easy, resulting in many caught up in domestic conflicts.
Now, instead of fighting COVID-19, many Zimbabwean couples are fighting one another.
Catherine Mkwapati, a women rights defender and also director of the Youth Dialogue Action Network, a civil society organization here, said ‘arguments and conflicts are escalating among couples because they are living together 24 hours a day, forced to do so by the national lockdown.’
“You would realize that many men now confined indoors with their wives are not formally employed and because without income, they get angry when asked to make plans for the family’s food provisions, for instance, and this triggers violence,” Mkwapati told Ubuntu Times.
Even Musara of the Musasa Project, said ‘we have got young women who have been physically assaulted for asking for food to feed the family, especially in cases where the woman relies on the husband to provide food.’
With unemployment hovering above 90 percent in Zimbabwe, according to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, most people are dependent on daily informal trade to earn a living.
But, amid the continuing lockdown, even dependency on informal trade for survival is no longer possible, and couples have to bear the brunt of hunger confined in their homes.
In Zimbabwe, women have become top agricultural producers, yet oppressed by their male counterparts who rob them of the fruits of their labor. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
By the 23rd of April, Zimbabwe had 29 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with four deaths recorded since the disease pounced on the Southern African nation.
Coronavirus broke out for the first time end of last year in Wuhan, a city in Hubei Province in China, before it swiftly spread to several countries across the globe.
To Zimbabwean feminists like Musara, ‘as much as we say COVID-19 is an emergency, gender-based violence is an emergency as well.’
“Once gender-based violence is declared an emergency, at least we will have various actors coming together, sitting at the same table, and trying to come up with solutions to help especially women being victimized,” said Musara.
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, a Zimbabwean legislator, said ‘I don’t necessarily agree with the fact that men are abusing women because they are confined; abusers have always been abusers.’
To many women rights defenders like Mkwapati, in Zimbabwe, ‘the lockdown is proving to be having far-reaching consequences because those who are in abusive relationships are now restricted face-to-face with their tormentors.’
Even as they have fought tooth and nail through mobilization by women rights organizations, Zimbabwe’s women and children remain topmost victims of domestic violence. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo / Ubuntu Times
Even as Zimbabwean police have said people can still report to them cases of domestic violence during the lockdown, many victims of domestic violence like 28-year old Mavis Chitoro have said ‘it is hard to call police when you are locked down in the same house with your abuser.’
Other gender activists such as Chelesile Nyathi of South Western Region Gender Network (SWRGN), a regional gender-focused network, said ‘when people spend more time together, chances are high that they start having multiple incidents of violence at home.’
To Nyathi, ‘when there is added stress in the home it increases the frequency and severity of abuse. This, in turn, creates greater risk of domestic violence.’
But, to Mumbire of the Women in Zimbabwe Coalition, hope is all they can embrace in the fight against domestic violence as the lockdown continues.
“With the now extended lockdown being in place, we are hoping that perpetrators of domestic violence will be brought to book,” said Mumbire.
ITUNDA, Tanzania — It is midday at Itunda, a tiny village in Tanzania’s southern highlands and Marietta Andrea* is perched awkwardly on a wooden stool, her protruding belly touching a make-shift stall as she briskly packs roasted groundnuts, encrusted with salt into thin polyethylene bags ready to sell.
“I’m just helping my mother. It is not something I would do if I was going to school,” says Andrea.
The 17-year-old girl, became pregnant and was expelled from school—crushing her future dreams. Andrea, who wanted to be a teacher, was lured by Bodaboda (motorcycle), who offered her free rides to school.
“He was just a friend, but when he started to give me gifts, I couldn’t resist the temptation,” Andrea tells Ubuntu Times.
Lack of comprehensive sex education means that Andrea blindly gave in to a sex predator who destroyed her future.
Once a hard-working student at Ilula Secondary School, Kilolo district, Iringa region, Andrea was yearning to become a teacher and help marginalized children in the impoverished village to get an education and succeed in life. Instead, she became pregnant thus her dreams melted away.
Distraught, Andrea, who’s heavily pregnant, is wobbling daily on a rugged terrain to the bustling market where her mother sells various consumer goods.
She is not alone. Many girls, who become pregnant are expelled from school every year.
Under the country’s 2002 policy, a student can be expelled from school if they commit an offense against morality.
“This is a bad policy. It blindly ignores the worsening plight of pregnant girls and young mothers” says Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa, a Dar es Salaam-based human rights defender.
A group of peer educators are singing and dancing as a way to send messages about the impact of teen pregnancies in Shinyanga region in 2014. Credit: Kizito Makoye / Ubuntu Times
In 2017 Tanzania President, John Magufuli entrenched this policy, when he publicly declared that girls who become pregnant should not be allowed to return to school.
“As long as I am president… no pregnant student will be allowed to return to school…After getting pregnant, you are done,” he stated.
Tanzania has one of highest adolescent pregnancy and birth rates in the world, with 21 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 having given birth, according to 2015/16 data by Tanzania Bureau of Statistics (TBS).
More than 55,000 schoolgirls in Tanzania have been expelled from schools over the last decade under this policy which blatantly ignores jarring realities that lead to pregnancies, campaigners said.
“If I get a chance to go back to school. I wouldn’t hesitate a moment. That’s would be the only way to realize my dreams,” says Andrea.
While Tanzania government has the duty to protect girls’ right to education and safeguard them from sexual exploitation, observers say, pregnant girls and young mothers are still treated with astounding contempt.
“I feel I am a laughing stock. Some people are scolding me while pointing an accusing finger,” says Andrea.
Teen pregnancy is the main factor forcing many girls in Iringa to drop out of school. This stark reality, badly affect young mothers and their babies.
Nestled on the plains of Udzungwa mountain ranges, the wind-swept Itunda village, is home to many HIV/AIDS orphans.
A young facilitator addresses young mothers in Shinyanga about engaging in alternative income-generating activities in Shinyanga region in 2014. Credit: Kizito Makoye / Ubuntu Times
In the neighboring Masukanzi village, a tall, bubbly 19-year-old Hanifa Mdette sits on a mat, stirring porridge ready to feeds her plump two-year-old son. A wide-eyed cat mews, as a plume of smoke wafts from a shaky kitchen.
Mdette, who dropped out of school in 2017 says her future is bleak.
“I don’t think I can get any good work without education,” she says.
At the center of the crisis, is an entrenched patriarchal system and deep-rooted Hehe traditions where underage pregnancies are considered a curse, pregnant girls are ostracized.
However, there’s a glimmer of hope for Andrea and other young mothers as the World Bank has injected new funding which will partly be spent to address their worsening plight.
As part of its initiative to revamp ailing education system in Tanzania, the World Bank has approved a whopping 500 million USD loan, part of which will be used to re-instate pregnant girls and young mothers who are kicked out of school.
The $500 million Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQUIP) will benefit 6.5 million students in public schools and establish stronger educational pathways for those out of a formal school system.
The project is designed to help adolescent children to transition to upper secondary education. It offers pregnant girls, young mothers, and other vulnerable girls the possibility to return to school.
Moved young mothers join the floor dancing during one of the education sessions in Shinyanga in 2014. Credit: Kizito Makoye / Ubuntu Times
While Tanzanian children deserve better education majority of girls miss the opportunity every year, says Mara Warwick, World Bank’s Country Director for Tanzania.
“This is an important step in addressing the challenges that Tanzania children face throughout their education,” she says.
Although Tanzania adopted Free Basic Education Policy in 2015, which helped increased primary school enrollment from 8.3 to 10.1 million by 2018, and raise secondary school enrollment to 2.2 million from 1.8 million, observers say the government has failed to improve quality of education and reduce drop-out rates.
“Tanzania is suffering from a learning crisis where children are not in school, or are in school but not learning,” said Jaime Saavedra, World Bank’s Global Director for Education.
Human Rights Watch, however, criticized the World Bank for “failure to use its leverage” and caved to Tanzania’s discriminatory ban and practices, undermining its own commitment to non-discrimination.
Schoolgirls in Tanzania are routinely subjected to mandatory pregnancy test and those found pregnant are permanently expelled.
“The World Bank should be working with governments to move education systems toward full inclusion and accommodation of all girls in public schools, including those who are pregnant or parents,” said Elin Martinez, senior children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch in a statement.
Equality Now, an international charity that champions the rights of girls and women calls on the government to lift the discriminatory ban against school-going pregnant girls.
Joyce Ndalichako, Tanzania Minister for Education Science and Technology recently said that the government is committed to ensuring pregnant girls who drop out of school will be allowed to go back to public school.
“We wish to assure the general public and our partners that the government remains fully committed to seriously implement the SEQUIP project according to the project design and agreement made with the World Bank,” the Minister said in a statement.
A group of peer educators are singing and dancing as a way to send messages about the impact of teen pregnancies in Shinyanga region in 2014. Credit: Kizito Makoye / Ubuntu Times
This is the first time Tanzania officials publicly announced the girls who have “dropped out” of school, due to pregnancy and other reasons will be allowed to continue their education.
Girls’ rights activists, however, received this public statement with cautious optimism.
In an interview with Ubuntu Times, Judy Gitau, Africa Coordinator of Equality Now—a global charity campaigning for girls’ and women’s rights expressed cautious optimism on the government’s promise.
“This is the first positive declaration…in four years, if the government acts upon its promise,.. it will be a welcome first step towards pregnant adolescent girls finally realizing their rights to education,” she stressed.
“The government has been unequivocal in stating that pregnant girls will be barred from attending mainstream school, not just for duration of their pregnancy but for life,” said Gitau.
Under the World Bank-funded project, officials are striving to help all school drop-outs pursue their secondary education and halt the practice of expelling pregnant girls from public schools.
“The public notice comes hot on the heels of SEQUIP funds being released by the World Bank, which has declared publicly that it has been advocating for girls access to education,” says Gitau.
Local and international civil society groups, including Equality Now, have been calling, urging the World Bank to withhold the funds until Tanzania withdraw discriminatory policy barring pregnant schoolgirls from attending school.
“We surmise that there is a direct correlation between the World Bank, finally approving its $500 million loan… and the country’s Minister of education releasing a public notice citing the inclusion of pregnant girls in accessing education,” she said.
Campaigners say this discriminatory policy has affected thousands of girls who are denied the right to education for life.
“It should be noted that some of these girls are victims of sexual violence and child marriages” Gitau said adding “it is a reflection of Tanzania government’s failure to address the root cause of adolescent pregnancies”
Juliet Kilewo, a victim of child marriages, who dropped out of school because her father wanted to marry her off in December 2020, reacts to a cameraman. She was rescued by Women rights campaigners. Credit: Kizito Makoye / Ubuntu Times
Education is crucial for fighting poverty and has an impact on social and economic welfare of individuals and the society.
Denying teenage mothers the right to education, campaigners say is equal to gender discrimination which reduces girls’ life opportunities, making it harder to fight poverty.
Gitau urged Tanzania authorities to seriously solve adolescent pregnancies and other economic and sexual exploitation of women and girls.
“Efforts to eradicate violence against girls and women in Tanzania must be stepped up and laws against sexual violence need to be better enforced to ensure that offenders are punished,” she said.
She called upon the government to eliminate stigma and discrimination borne by pregnant girls and adolescent mothers along with survivors of sexual violence.
As the world is reeling on the brink of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gitau warned Tanzania authorities to protect adolescent girls who are at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation.
“The closure of schools and other safeguarding institutions, quarantine rules and the restriction of movement, and loss of income in families as a result of the severe economic downturn, are all factors that increase the vulnerability of girls,” she said.
*Names have been changed to protect identities of the girls
Dadaab, Kenya March 9 — It’s Friday evening and as the sun sets, a group of women refugees converge at Dagahley settlement block inside Dadaab Refugee Camp.
They are converging for their regular group radio listening sessions where they exchange information on women’s rights and advocacy skills.
Emerging from different directions inside the refugee camp, some of the women are carrying sitting mats, others portable radios to be used during the special radio session, while others are sharing excitedly experiences they went through loudly as they take their positions at the venue of their meeting.
Suddenly, the women group leader brings the session to order and introduces the evening radio topic to her colleagues numbering 45 before the session starts.
Each evening a new set of women participants attend the sessions who include victims of rape, sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, early child marriage or female genital mutilation. They operate under the Somali Women Refugee Radio Listening Project.
Most of the women participants have in one way or the other suffered different human rights violations in the camp. Their cases were handled through a traditional justice system established by elders at the refugee camp who hear the cases before determining them and imposing unjust fines thus denying the victims justice and shielding the perpetrators from facing the law.
Rehabilitated ex-traditional circumcisers participating in radio listening group session in Dadaab refugee camp, Northern Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
Dagahaley camp is one of the four settlements located inside Dadaab Refugee Camp billed as the world’s largest refugee camp that hosts an estimated 640,000 refugees from conflict-hit countries of Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Ethiopia with majority fleeing from war-torn neighboring Somalia.
Before the radio listening session starts, women refugee rights activists share their advocacy campaigns and the challenges they face within their respective refugee settlement blocks and then introduce any women and girl’s victims of rape, sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, early child marriage or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), to the group.
On this particular Friday radio listening session, a refugee women activist Mrs. Asha Ahmed, introduce a girl who was raped by a group of youths in one of the settlement blocks at the refugee camp.
Mrs. Ahmed reveals that the rape victim’s parents decided not to bring the issue to the attention of law enforcement officers at the camp and instead accepted two goats from parents of the alleged rapist as fine or compensation for the offense committed by their son who was accompanied by others in the barbaric act.
The case was picked up by women refugee rights defenders operating under the Somali Women Refugee Radio Listening Project who convinced the victim’s parents to seek justice and honor for their daughter.
The parent agreed and the case was reported to the Dadaab Refugee Camp police unit and the suspect was apprehended and charged before a mobile court that offers judicial services in the refugee tower.
Women radio listening members listen to a radio program on reporting rape cases and other gender-based violence in Dadaab refugee camp, Northern Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
“First it was hard to convince the victim’s parents to return the two goats and report the matter to the nearest police station, but they eventually agreed after we enlightened and assured them,” Mrs. Ahmed a women refugee rights defender at the camp says.
The women refugee radio listeners heard from the refugee rights defenders that more women refugees need to be reached and given education and other support for them to shun the traditional Somali justice system and report human rights violations to the police promptly.
Mrs. Ahmed told the radio sessions listeners that concealing rape, sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, early child marriage or female genital mutilation was unacceptable and such cases should not be handled through the traditional Somali justice system but within the purview of the Kenyan law.
“Many women and girls whose rights have been violated in the refugee camp have failed to get justice due to unjust judgments made by traditional Somali justice system,” she noted.
Every new women radio listening group members at the refugee camp establish their own women radio group which is coordinated and supported by Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project.
The rape victim whose case had been taken over by the Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project went through a comprehensive training to equip her with skills to be able to agitate for the rights of other girls in her refugee settlement block.
“We believe through this initiative we are going to reach out to more women and girls who are victims of sexual violence, those subjected to early marriages and are threatened with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM),’’ Mrs. Ahmed observed.
So far the Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project has reached out to 45,000 women refugees and 3,400 women and girls victims of sexual violence and 4,500 victims of outdated cultural practices within Dadaab refuge tower.
Women radio listening audience participating in radio listening and feedback sessions in Dadaab village, Northern Kenya. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
The Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project leader, Mrs. Muslima Hassan, took new women refugee members through an orientation exercise on the kind of advocacy expected from them in their respective refugee settlement blocks.
After the induction, the radio listening sessions start with a pre-recorded radio program on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) aired through a portable radio using a removable device containing the program which was recorded in a local radio station within Dadaab Refugee Camp.
The pre-recorded program is a 20-minutes radio feature story giving in-depth coverage of the practice within the camp and containing voices and advice from health, religious and community leaders, parents and women victims of FGM.
Ten minutes into the radio listening session several women refugees engage each other in low tones with others grimacing from the facts and information they received on the danger of FGM on young girls and women who have already undergone it.
Medical experts detailed the health dangers associated with the practice while religious leaders emphasized that the practice was not sanctioned and supported by Islamic faith thus parents should not conform to it blindly as it was un-Islamic.
Strongest voices and confessions came from girls and women victims of the practice who narrated how they now live with lifetime scars, with one FGM victim claiming she is experiencing difficulties in giving birth due to pain and injuries to her genitalia.
One parent revealed during the sessions that she lost her daughter to FGM following excessive bleeding after the exercise was performed on her by inexperienced traditional circumcisers.
Women radio listeners preparing their solar-powered radio for radio listening program on women’s rights. Credit: Abjata Khalif / Ubuntu Times
During the radio sessions, a middle-aged woman claimed that she was divorced by her husband due to persistent pain she developed after undergoing FGM. She revealed that she started experiencing pain while having sex with her husband a development that made her hate sex resulting in her being divorced.
She added that she had been forced to turn down several men who approached her for marriage after her divorce due to fear of pain during sex as she has visited several hospitals for assistance without success.
Her radio testimony ended with a call for communities and parents to shun Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) saying she is suffering due to permanent injuries from it.
During the heated discussions, it emerged that many women did not know that FGM was not supported by Islam and was meant to stop girls from engaging in promiscuity.
The majority of participants were not aware of the health complications caused by FGM and the health and psychological impact on girls and women.
To most of them, FGM is an outdated cultural practice that should be shunned by all women and the Somali Women Radio Listening Group Project is a panacea that had brought change in their lives.
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