The International Community of Women Living with HIV Easter Africa (ICWEA) embarked on a regional campaign of Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) during COVID-19 in Eastern Africa. The campaign will aim at creating advocacy for women and girls whose human rights are being violated in the five East African countries of; Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. This is continuation of a campaign that was launched on 27/11/2020 during the commemoration of the 16 days of Activism with a call to action – policy makers, decision makers and duty bearers was made to take action against all forms of VAWG through formulation and implementation of policies and programs aimed at reducing the vice The campaign themed “Together we raise to End Violence Against Women and Girls”
According to recent news stories, violence against women and girls is present in all societies and takes different forms in different contexts like intimate partner violence, sexual violence, denial of human and difficulty in accessing social services because of the covid-19. COVID-19 has overshadowed all other critical ailments, directly affected access to critical women’s health services such sexual reproductive health services HIV services inclusive. We have seen increased cases violence, deepened discrimination, and compromised access to SRH services
East African countries have recorded increase in that kind of violence during covid times.
While addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Center, Minister of Gender Frank Tumwebaze noted that Violence was on an increase in Ugandan families during the lockdown. He added that some acts of violence have even taken lives of Ugandans citing shootings and murder.
A GBV Advocate in Tanzania said much as their country did not lockdown, there was an increase in cases of violence as it was being reported in the media. She added that there was no data on most cases and because of that, some of the women and girls who face the violence were unable to get justice.
Another advocate stressed that some polices are being changed in Tanzania to facilitate better data collection.
“We are advocating for the change of the police form so that it can be filled by the person facing violence and not the medical personnel” he said.
On the other hand, a Kenyan champion said Kenyans are starting to speak out on violence and holding perpetrators accountable.
“Other people are speaking up but for real victims are not. The violence is so bad that victims are fearing to come out” she said.
The same was for Rwanda where wife battering has become a new normal.
About the Campaign
The campaign will run in three phases: SRHR, GBV, Care and Treatment by use of webinars, messages and Digital content. It is running under the theme “Together we raise to End Violence against Women and Girls”
What we want to see:
- Increased attention to cases of VAWG by policy and decision makers
- Reduced cases of VAW/G during the COVID 19 lockdown
- Improved community and health systems to respond to SRHR issues of women and girls during COVI-19 in target countries
- Decisions taken by the policymakers especially during this time of COVID, take into consideration gender and human rights perspectives
The campaign is funded by African Women Development Forum (AWDF)
