Africa

Group of people dancing outside — Courtesy of ArtGlo (Malawi)

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against women and girls is widespread and systematic throughout the Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan. Sexual violence is being used as a tactic of war, compounding and exacerbating protracted humanitarian and economic crises. Survivors face obstacles to accessing essential services and the justice system as well as threats of retaliation.

Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation is a women-led international civil society organization dedicated to protecting and empowering survivors as well as tackling the culture of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators. The project aims to empower two CRSV survivor-led networks – Le Mouvement des Survivantes des Violences Sexuelles en Centrafrique (the Movement of Survivors of Sexual Violence in the Central African Republic – MOSUCA) in CAR and The Survivors Network of South Sudan (SUNS) in South Sudan – with enhanced capacities, resources and organizational resilience so they can participate in initiatives to end CRSV, provide comprehensive services to survivors, and decrease the stigmatization of survivors in the target communities.

Project activities include: (1) providing mental health, psychological and livelihood support to MOSUCA and SUNS members; (2) providing organizational resources to survivor networks to strengthen their organizational resilience and coherence; (3) supporting learning, knowledge and experience exchanges with other survivor-led networks ; and (4) enhance survivors’ capacities to identify and refer survivors to services

Cameroon

Libra Association For Widows - Project title: Inclusive approach to prevent and combat violence against women and girls in the context of crisis in Cameroon – Cycle 26

In Cameroon, ongoing socio-political conflicts and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in internal displacement on a mass scale, exposing vast numbers of women and girls to heightened risks of violence at a time when specialist services have been disrupted in the most affected localities.

Libra Association for Widows is a women-led women’s rights organization dedicated to promoting women’s rights and ending all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls (VAW/G). The project aims to prevent and end VAW/G, including internally displaced women and girls as well as those living with disabilities, in six conflict-affected regions in Cameroon. It will be implemented with three partner organizations – Central African Human Rights Defenders Network (REDHAC), Cameroon Bar Association Human Rights Commission, and Global Voices for Women.

Project activities include: (1) providing specialized services, including psycho-social and legal support, business training and financial assistance to women and girl survivors of violence;

(2) awareness-raising on VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms in a crisis context; (3) training service providers, legal and governmental officials, police officers and traditional leaders on VAW/G in a crisis context and implementing survivor-centred response mechanisms;(4) establishing self-help groups and multi-stakeholder feminist networks to foster peer-to-peer learning and collective advocacy to end VAW/G; and (5) strengthening organizational resilience.

Association pour la Valorisation de la Femme (AVAF – Association for the Valorization of the Woman) - Project Title: Response to gender-based violence: involvement of local authorities and community leaders – Cycle 25

In Cameroon, where homosexuality is criminalized, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people have been experiencing increased violence and discrimination, particularly LGBTQI rights defenders. This form of violence has been exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

AVAF is dedicated to safeguarding the rights of women and girls, especially those in marginalized communities, including LBQ women as well as women and girls living with disabilities.

The project aims to empower LBQ women and girl survivors or at risk of violence with the knowledge and skills to identify and report cases of violence against women in the South, East, West, littoral and Central regions of Cameroon.

Project strategies include: (1) providing psychological and referral services; (2) organizing community sessions on self-esteem and leadership development; (3) implementing media campaigns, community mobilization and awareness raising in communities; (4) training LBQ women’s organizations on gender responsive advocacy techniques; (5) adapting psychological services for women survivors of violence; (6) organizing workshops for partner organizations; and (7) creating a national multisectoral task force to advocate for the protection, monitoring and support of women survivors of violence, including LBQ women.

Leap Girl Africa - Project Title: Unite for a Better Life Cameroon: Adapting an Evidence-Based Community-Driven Intervention to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence – Cycle 25

Intimate partner violence is a major challenge worldwide, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Cameroon, data from the 2021 Demographic and Health Survey indicates that 55% of women have experienced physical violence, most from intimate partners but also from family members, since they were 15 years old. Conflicts, displacement and the COVID-19 pandemic have increased risks for women and girls.

Leap Girl is a young, women-led organization aimed at advancing girls and young women’s rights and education by preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence, improving access to sexual and reproductive health services, and using technology to improve access to education.

The project aims to focus on local residents and internally displaced people in 30 communities.

Project strategies include: (1) leveraging Leap Girl’s experience in delivering evidence-based community-driven intervention to prevent and address intimate partner violence with the “Unite for a Better Life” gender-transformative curriculum, adapted to the Cameroonian context; (2) implementing the project through in-person discussions led by community facilitators involving men and women and through listening sessions of podcast episodes in a safe space; (3) changing attitudes and norms that perpetuate violence; (4) increasing knowledge about intimate partner violence; and (5) improving couples’ communication and behaviour.

Women in Action against Gender Based Violence Cameroon - Project Title: Improving access for Indigenous Mbororo women and girls to essential, safe and multi-sectoral services to end VAW/G within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the armed conflict in NW and SW Cameroon – Cycle 24

Women in Action against Gender Based Violence Cameroon intends to increase the number of Mbororo women and girls who can access multi-sectoral services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Women belonging to the indigenous pastoralist Mbororo people are especially at risk of violence because of the intersecting discrimination and exclusion they face, and patriarchal norms.

The project intends to reach about 12,000 Mbororo women and girls belonging to 13 councils of the North West Region with the highest concentrations of indigenous Mbororo pastoralists and 2 councils in the West Region with the highest number of Mbororo internally displaced persons (IDPs). The project will be co-implemented with the Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association and the Association for the Welfare of Women and Indigenous People. The former will sensitize service providers on the situation of Mbororo pastoralist communities and provide paralegal workers to collect data and identify and refer Mbororo women and girl survivors of violence or those at risk. The latter will help mobilize Mbororo women and girls for project activities and provide community facilitators to collect data, engage with community sensitization and identification, and help with the referral of Mbororo women and girl survivors to services.

Project strategies include: (1) data collection on violence against women and girls in Mbororo communities; (2) raising awareness among key stakeholders on the situation of Mbororo women and girls; (3) improving access to information related to services for Mbororo communities; and (4) building the capacity of service providers to identify and reach Mbororo women and girls who have survived or are at risk of violence.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Solidarité féminine pour la paix et le développement intégral (SOFEPADI – Female solidarity for peace and integral development) - Project Title: Improve internally displaced women’s and girls’ access to multisectoral gender-based violence services in the reception and return areas of North Kivu – Cycle 25

Due to armed conflict and natural disasters, the Democratic Republic of Congo now hosts around 5 million internally displaced people, just over half of them women, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2021. These women face heightened risk of violence, especially sexual violence.

SOFEPADI is a women-led organization focused on promoting the rights of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It works to combat gender-based violence through community mobilization, comprehensive services, and strengthening women’s and girls’ autonomy and representation in decision-making bodies.

In 18 areas of Beni, Kalunguta, Vuhovi, Kayna, Nyiragongo and Masisi in North Kivu, the project will work to improve access to quality, comprehensive and specialist services for internally displaced women and girl survivors of violence; Indigenous women and girls; women and girls living with disabilities; and women and girls with low incomes.

The project will: (1) support 18 health centres and six safe spaces; (2) raise the awareness of marginalized women and girls about gender-based violence and available services; (3) mobilize communities on gender-based violence, using an integrated, survivor-centred approach; and (4) economically empower marginalized women and girls.

Ethiopia

Empathy for Life Integrated Development Association (ELiDA) - Project title: Integrated prevention and response to violence against women and girls in North Wollo, Amhara region, Ethiopia – Cycle 26

An estimated 5.7 million people need humanitarian assistance as a result of armed conflict in the Tigray, Ahmara and Afar regions of Ethiopia that began in November 2020. The UN Human Rights Council has expressed grave concern about conflict-related violence against women and girls (VAW/G), which is reported to have increased substantially.

Empathy for Life Integrated Development Association (ELiDA) is a women-led women’s rights organization working to promote human’s rights and empower women, girls and youth. Applying the SASA! approach for community mobilization, the project aims to reduce the incidence of VAW/G and support survivors of violence in Amhara region. The project will be implemented in collaboration with Christian Aid Ethiopia.

Project activities include: (1) creating context-appropriate referral pathways for women and girl survivors of violence; (2) establishing self-help groups for women and girl survivors or at risk of violence that provide training and financial support to encourage income-generating activities; (3) establishing community action groups, and youth and school clubs, to facilitate peer-to-peer learning on VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms; (4) training social workers, health and legal service providers, and governmental officials on VAW/G prevention and survivor-centred response mechanisms; and (5) awareness-raising on VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms, including through radio programmes.

Kenya

Maisha Girls Safe House - Project title: Safe and Thriving Survivors – Cycle 26

In Kenya, despite positive government action to prevent and end violence against women and girls (VAW/G), 47% of women aged 15 years and older have been subjected to some form of physical, sexual and/or psychological violence by an intimate partner in the previous year.

Maisha Girls Safe House (MGSH) is a constituent-led women’s rights organization committed to protecting girls and young women from sexual violence and abuse. The project aims to empower girls and young women survivors or at risk of violence and to provide them with access to comprehensive specialist services in the sub-counties of Makadara and Kamukunji in Kenya.

Project activities include: (1) providing comprehensive specialist services to girls and young women survivors of violence, including shelter in MGSH’s safe house; (2) training survivors so they can engage in income-generating activities; (3) establishing community safe spaces for girls and young women at risk or survivors of violence to receive monthly empowerment sessions; (4) multi-stakeholder forums and meetings of survivors, service providers, government officials and police officers to foster peer-to-peer learning and collective advocacy to end the violence; and (5) awareness-raising on violence prevention and response mechanisms, including through community plays and local media programmes.

Physicians for Human Rights – Kenya - Project Title: Enhancing Sexual Violence Response in Kenya During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Cycle 24

In Kenya, survivors of sexual violence often have to overcome hurdles to seek medical care and forensic evidence is collected, sexual violence cases that make it to court often fail because of insufficient evidence. The project of the Physicians for Human Rights – Kenya aims to ensure that many more women and girl survivors of sexual violence have access to medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic, including forensic documentation services, to ensure that evidence is available to drive investigations and prosecutions, creating pathways to justice for survivors. The project will reach more than 17,000 women and girls who have survived violence as well as government officials, healthcare workers, legal professionals and law enforcement agents.

The project intends to: (1) enhance the capacity of local health, legal and law enforcement professionals to collect, document and preserve forensic evidence of sexual violence and investigate these crimes, including by developing virtual platforms for cooperation across sectors to support prosecutions during the pandemic; and (2) catalyse systemic change in survivor-centred sexual violence response and prevention by promoting best practices through institutional capacity development, network mobilization and advocacy.

Liberia

Women NGOs Secretariat of Liberia - Project title: Liberia Fights FGM - Cycle 26

Despite some legislative progress, female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) remains widespread in Liberia, carried out by traditional leaders (zoes) as a rite of passage into womanhood. According to World Bank data for 2020, an estimated 31.8% of women and girls are living with the consequences of this harmful practice and many more are at risk.

Women NGOs Secretariat of Liberia is a women-led women’s rights organizations dedicated to promoting women’s rights and empowering women and girls. The project aims to support and protect women and girl survivors or at risk of FGM/C, including Indigenous women and girls and those living in the lowest income group, and to empower citizens, community-leaders, and lawmakers to advocate for the adoption of a law to end FGM/C in six counties in Liberia. The project will be implemented in collaboration with Sister's Hand Liberia.

Project activities include: (1) providing health and psychosocial services to women and girl survivors of FGM/C; (2) providing support and livelihood skills to zoes so they can engage in different income-generating activities; (3) training service providers and community leaders on FGM/C prevention and referral mechanisms; (4) establishing in the targeted counties “Stop FGM/C” coalitions involving members of Women NGOs Secretariat of Liberia’s network, service providers, faith-based leaders, and legal and government officials; and (5) awareness-raising on FGM/C prevention and referral mechanisms.

Madagascar

End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) France - Project Title: MIRA (Mobilize for equity and encourage women and girls to claim their autonomy) - Cycle 25

In Madagascar, violence against women and girls, including rape and other forms of gender-based violence, is tragically common. ECPAT France is part of the ECPAT International network that is dedicated to promoting children’s right to live free of violence, including sexual exploitation. It works to reinforce protection systems and rehabilitate young survivors of sexual violence, mostly girls. The project aims to protect Malagasy women and girl survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation as well as women human rights defenders, including self-identified sex workers, in six regions of Madagascar.

The project will: (1) implement a psychological and socio-economic rehabilitation programme for girl survivors of sexual exploitation and improve protection services and survivors’ access to them; (2) focus on preventing violence against women and girls by raising awareness of various stakeholders to change attitudes and increase reporting of violence; and (3) improve access to justice and popularize laws on gender-based violence.

This project is a scale-up of ECPAT France’s previous MIRA project, funded by the UN Trust Fund in 2016.

Nigeria

Centre for Women’s Health and Information - Project title: Strengthening existing VAWG/SGBV prevention and response structure for women and girls with disabilities in Lagos and Osun State (Project Hope) - Cycle 26

Despite the 2015 Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, violence against women and girls has continued to increase in crisis-affected Nigeria. A 2021 UN Women report revealed that nearly half of all Nigerian women had experienced at least one form of violence since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with those living with disabilities twice as likely to face domestic or sexual abuse than women and girls without a disability.

Centre for Women’s Health and Information is a women-led women’s rights organization dedicated to empowering women and girls in Nigeria. The project aims to ensure access to comprehensive specialist services for women and girls living with disabilities who are survivors or at risk of violence, and tackle the culture of impunity associated with such violence, in Lagos and Ogun States in Nigeria.

Project activities include: (1) training women and girls living with disabilities to serve as community-based psychosocial first aid providers; (2) capacity-building workshops for key stakeholders, including legal service providers and government officials, on prevention of violence against women and girls living with disabilities (VAWGWD) and response mechanisms;(3) establishing ending VAWGWD response groups; (4) awareness-raising on VAWGWD prevention and referral mechanisms; and (5) developing and implementing guidance documents, including an action and sustainability plan, on ending VAWGWD in Lagos and Osun States.

Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative - Project title: Together We Can – Cycle 26

In Nigeria, ongoing socio-political conflicts, catastrophic flooding and the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have triggered massive humanitarian needs as well as increased violence against women and girls (VAW/G), particularly those in Indigenous communities and those who are internally displaced.

Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative is a constituent-led women’s rights organization that makes multisectoral interventions to empower women and girls. The project aims to provide comprehensive specialist support and economic empowerment opportunities to women and girls at risk or survivors of violence, including Indigenous women and girls and those who are refugees or internally displaced, in the context of the protracted conflict in Kaduna State in Nigeria.

Project activities include: (1) providing comprehensive services to women and girl survivors of VAW/G, including psychosocial support and counselling; (2) providing capacity-building and empowerment-focused activities to survivors; (3) multi-stakeholder meetings and training of community health service providers on VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms to foster peer-to-peer learning and collective advocacy to end VAW/G; (4) capacity-building activities and seminars for men and boys on women’s rights and VAW/G prevention; and (5) awareness-raising on VAW/G prevention and referral mechanisms, including community mobilization activities and advocacy campaigns.

In 2019, Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative received a grant from the UN Trust Fund to implement a project focusing on preventing and responding to VAW/G in two semi-urban communities: Ungwan Dosa in Kaduna North and Ungwan Romi in Kaduna South.

Circuit Pointe Charity Organization - Project Title: Break the cycle: end VAWG – Cycle 25

Despite the 2015 Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, violence against women and girls has continued to increase in Nigeria. In 2021, a UN Women report revealed that nearly half of Nigerian women had experienced at least one form of violence since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indigenous women and girls living in Southeast region face heightened risk of violence, including female genital mutilation, due to extreme poverty and cultural beliefs, norms and attitudes that allow gender-based violence and restrict sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Circuit Pointe, which is locally governed and involves community-led social change interventions, operates in South East region, where sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation are deeply rooted. It works to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights; end violence against women and girls; and promote economic empowerment.

The project aims to: (1) accelerate zero tolerance for violence against women girls and female genital mutilation/cutting in Imo and Ebonyi States through empowering community structures to take action; and (2) integrate local networks monitoring violence against women and girls in 16 communities.

Greater Women Initiative for Health and Right (GWIHR) - Project Title: Fore fronting our agenda – strengthening the gender-based violence response for sex workers – Cycle 25

In Nigeria, female and transgender self-identified sex workers face stigma and discrimination as sex work is punishable by law. This has further marginalized them and prevented them from accessing essential services.

GWIHR, a community-based organization primarily constituent-led and comprising of self-identified sex workers, works to uphold the rights of their constituents by promoting their access to justice and comprehensive health-care services and creating an enabling environment where women and girls can thrive.

The project will be community-driven and aiming to reach 3,000 self-identified female and transgender sex workers aged 15-35 who have limited access to justice and services in Rivers State.

The project aims to: (1) foster police accountability by raising awareness; (2) advocate for reforms of harmful legislation; (3) provide clinical care and legal services to survivors of violence; (4) establish safe spaces and emergency shelters; (5) increase the number of cases filed against perpetrators; and (6) change the behaviour and policies that discriminate against sex workers.

Tabitha Cumi Foundation - Project Title: Flashlight Actions On Girls Safety – Cycle 24

The Tabitha Cumi Foundation, a faith-based organization, will address family violence – physical, sexual and psychological and emotional violence, as well as violence against girls – in the context of COVID-19. Its project will be implemented in 10 communities in three states in North Central NigeriaIt intends to: create safe spaces for adolescent girls to learn, speak out and share experiences; mobilize community support for behavioural change to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence; and create an accessible, virtual case management hub for survivors of violence. The project aims to reach 550 adolescent girls aged 10-19, including 200 survivors of violence.

Project strategies include: (1) a gender needs assessment to understand the specific factors affecting violence against girls; (2) creating safe discussion spaces for adolescent girls for learning, psycho-social support, experience-sharing, and breaking the culture of silence; (3) clustering communities to create easy access to multi-sectoral services coordinated by a trained health worker or gender advocate; (4) establishing a one-stop virtual case management hub and facilitating access to information through a call centre for counselling and referrals; (5) training relevant stakeholders; and (6) community sensitization of faith and traditional leaders, as well as men and boys, about the consequences of violence against women and girls.

Sexual Offences Awareness & Response Initiative - Project Title: Strengthening Communities-in-emergencies to address sexual based violence against girls, within the COVID-19 pandemic context, in North Central Nigeria – Cycle 24

Women and children in Benue State living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) are often subjected to high rates of sexual violence. During the COVID-19 lockdown, interventions to address violence against women stopped in the camps.

Sexual Offences Awareness & Response Initiative (SOAR) is a small, girl-focused organization. Its project plans to support more than 2,000 displaced girls who are living in four IDP camps and host communities in Benue State, as well as teachers, members and leaders of community groups, men and boys. The project aims to strengthen local child protection mechanisms in IDP camps and host communities; enhance in-school and out-of-school girls’ protection from sexual-based violence and their ability to respond to violence. . SOAR intends to base its work on a previously implemented project funded by the UN Trust Fund. By the end of the project it is envisaged that community-based mechanisms will be developed where they do not exist, and strengthened where they do exist, to address sexual-based violence against girls in IDP camps and host communities.

The project will: (1) empower girls to determine how sexual-based violence manifests itself during emergencies and decide what should be done; (2) empower out-of-school girls in IDP camps and informal settlements through training by community female volunteers; (3) strengthen Community Child Protection Committees to develop home-grown plans against sexual-based violence against girls; (4) provide improved technology for response mechanisms; and increase the capacities of local peer leaders, particularly men and boys, to raise awareness about negative socio-cultural norms and support survivors of sexual-based violence.

Women United for Economic Empowerment - Project Title: Improved action to end violence against women and girls in Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers States, Nigeria – Cycle 24

The COVID-19 lockdown triggered a rise in gender-based violence and exposed challenges faced by institutions and organizations to meaningfully address and respond to the violence.

Women United for Economic Empowerment plans to support local communities to prevent and address gender-based violence sustainably, empowering rural Nigerian women to access services and justice institutions, and enjoy improved safety, health, well-being and economic opportunities. The project will be rolled out in eight communities in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, aiming to reach 2,100 women and girls in general, 300 women and girls living with HIV/AIDS, and 300 women and girl survivors of violence. In addition, 2,500 members of community-based groups, faith-based organizations and the general public, as well as men, boys and uniformed personnel, will be engaged.

The project’s strategies include: (1) advocacy with key stakeholders to address cultural barriers affecting violence against women and girls; (2) establishing community action committees and training community-based gender champions to tackle violence against women and girls; (3) providing women and girls who have survived or are at risk of violence with access to toll-free helplines, online counselling and a social support network; and (4) establishing village “seed capital” programmes for economic empowerment to help survivors of violence.

Rwanda

Association des Veuves du Genocide Agahozo (AVEGA Agahozo – Association of Widows of Genocide) - Project Title: Leveraging health care settings to deliver comprehensive gender-based violence services in Rwanda – Cycle 25

During the 1994 Rwanda genocide, 100,000-250,000 women were raped, according to UN estimates, with rape being used as a weapon of war. Many women contracted HIV as a result of rape, and many women were widowed during the genocide. AVEGA, a women’s rights organization, works to foster social justice for the widows and for women, children and families affected by the conflict. The project, which will be implemented in seven districts of Rwanda, aims to improve multisectoral services, in particular health services, and to protect the rights, economic independence and well-being of women and girl survivors of gender-based violence, especially those facing intersecting forms of violence.

Project strategies include: (1) supporting provision of survivor-centred information and services for survivors, including health services; (2) creating safe spaces for survivors to learn, share experiences and receive peer support; (3) using peer education to promote positive behaviours and empowerment; (4) preventing and responding to intersectional violence through economic empowerment and improved leadership skills; (5) using the SASA! methodology to engage men and boys and address negative social and gender norms that perpetuate gender-based violence; (6) establishing a referral mechanism for survivors seeking services; and (7) engaging district and central level duty bearers in preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

Somalia

Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) - Project Title: We Have Rights: Protecting IDP and Minority Women and Girls from SGBV in South Central Somalia and Somaliland – Cycle 25

Sexual violence is pervasive in Somalia and disproportionately affects women and girls in internally displaced communities and minority communities. In 2020, according to UN reports, 400 civilians, primarily girls, were raped or subjected to other forms of sexual violence. Food insecurity, conflicts and displacement, drought and the COVID-19 crises have exacerbated all forms of violence against women and girls.

SIHA is a women’s rights organization and regional network of grassroots civil society organizations dedicated to promoting the rights and empowerment of women and girls in the Horn of Africa.

The project will be implemented in informal settlements in Southwest Somalia and Somaliland, where the prevalence of violence against women and girls is high, and will be carried out in partnership with two of SIHA’s member organizations (Women’s Action Advocacy Progress Organization and Somali Women Development Centre) in collaboration with other civil society organizations. The project will focus on the protection needs of internally displaced and minority women.

Project strategies include: (1) building evidence to support advocacy; (2) raising the visibility of the specific challenges faced by internally displaced and minority women to garner public support for reform; (3) developing the capacity of civil society organizations and marginalized women and girls to engage in collective action; and (4) coordinating advocacy campaigns for the adoption of laws on sexual offences that comply with international human rights standards.

In 2018, the UN Trust Fund also funded a SIHA-implemented project in South Sudan that focused on addressing sexual violence against young women and girls in humanitarian context.

South Africa

Lesedi la Batho - Project Title: Building Towards a GBV Free Community – Cycle 24

Mabopane, home to around 111,000 people, is a marginalized, industrialized township in Tshwane, Gauteng province, South Africa. COVID-19 lockdown measures have devastated its economy and exacerbated risk factors for violence against women and girls, including poverty, food insecurity, increased alcohol and drug abuse, and isolation of large families in small homes.

Lesedi la Batho is a small, women-led, faith-based organization in Mabopane that seeks to inspire, empower, engage and equip the youth and community at large through sport, education, skills training, arts and other activities. Its project aims to work with 1,800 women and girls – including survivors of violence and girls and boys in schools – to reduce gender-based violence in Mabopane and surrounding communities and improve services for survivors.

The project’s strategies include: (1) education and raising awareness about gender-based violence among school students, community leaders and community members at large; (2) improving the quality of and access to support services for survivors through counselling, referral and facilitating transport; (3) establishing women’s support groups; and (4) empowering women to become financially independent through training, job placement and an entrepreneurship hub.

South Sudan

Women for Women International - Project title: Women Empowered against Violence – Cycle 26

Half of South Sudanese women are married before they are 18 and the country has the highest maternal mortality rate globally, according to a recent paper of Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan to the UN Human Rights Council. Ongoing conflict and climate change-related disasters have put women and girls at even higher risk of violence, and sexual violence has been instrumentalized as a reward and entitlement for men participating in conflict.

Women for Women International is a women-led women’s rights international organization working in conflict- and war-affected countries to support and empower women and girls most at risk of marginalization to improve their health, wellbeing, and socio-economic situation by connecting them to support networks. This project aims to prevent violence against women and girls (VAW/G) by protecting and empowering those at risk or survivors of violence, including refugee and internally displaced women and girls, and by transforming the community’s behaviours, practices and attitudes, in the counties of Yei, Juba and Terekeka in South Sudan. The project will be implemented with two partner organizations: Women for Change and South Sudan Law Society (SSLS).

Project activities include: (1) providing psychological and legal support and implementing social empowerment and entrepreneurship programmes for women and girls at risk or survivors of violence; (2) training women change agents’ cohorts to foster peer-to-peer learning and develop and implement community action plans against VAW/G; (3) training by SSLS of community focal points and implementing a capacity-building programme on women’s rights and VAW/G prevention for male community members; (4) awareness-raising on VAW/G prevention and referral mechanisms, including outreach activities and advocacy campaigns; and (5) multi-stakeholder meetings and the production of policy briefs and legal recommendations to prevent and end VAW/G based on the project’s findings.

Uganda

THRIVE Gulu - Project Title: Access to MHPSS and Empowerment Support Services for Survivors of VAW/G in the Context of COVID-19: Post-Conflict Survivors and South Sudanese Refugee Populations in northern Uganda – Cycle 24

In 2020, northern Uganda experienced unprecedented levels of gender-based violence, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, exposing a major gap in mental health and psycho-social support services. Additionally, pandemic-related financial insecurity, school closures and food shortages intensified gender inequalities and increased the risks of violence against women and girls.

THRIVE Gulu, an international NGO, provides essential trauma recovery services to individuals and communities in post-conflict northern Uganda. Its project will address violence against women and girls in the context of COVID-19 in Odek sub-county in Omoro District and Palabek Refugee Settlement in Lamwo District. It will also seek to align multi-sectoral service providers to ensure that essential services are more easily accessible, and change social norms that adversely affect women and girls.

The project intends to: (1) train key service providers on best practices in referrals, standard operating procedures relating to COVID-19, and delivery of survivor-centred care; (2) train community lay counsellors/gender-based violence monitors as frontline responders to violence against women and girls; (3) establish “seed capital” for economic empowerment of women and girls; (4) mobilize zero tolerance village forums to tackle gender inequalities and promote women’s human rights; and (5) provide adolescent girls with life skills and tools to prevent gender-based violence.

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