When Uganda announced total lock down in March to curb the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, little did the government know that it was creating a new problem – Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
A total of 3,280 GBV cases were reported to police between March 30 and April 28, 2020. This is in addition to the 283 cases of violence against children, according to the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
This massive rise in GBV cases was mostly because of confinement at home under heightened levels of stress, uncertainty and fear, eventually producing stressful environments that precipitate violence.
According to Herman Okia, the Team Lead at Sister’s Keeper, the organisation could have done much better had they had access to financial resources to support their scope and response mechanisms.
“You can imagine how distraught we were when we saw these figures. Not for a lack of foresight but we did not think it would have been as bad as the figures reported. From our handicapped position, we needed to find a way to meaningfully participate,” he said.
Okia added that on top of raising awareness through social media and using the Sister’s Keeper community cells, they also did advocacy for the “weaker sexes” in family environments.
“We recorded a number of short videos that were mainly shared on the WhatsApp platform appealing to Ugandans to maintain respect for one another, keep the peace and work towards harmony in their homes during this trying period. The messages in most of these videos targeted perpetrators and would be perpetrators asking them to think carefully about the effects GBV will have on their family fabric,” Okia added.
The organisation offered follow-up services using SMS, Chat and Telephone to offer counselling services and to stop the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 that was spreading within the communities increasing chances of GBV. This violence manifested in form of stigma of COVID-19 suspects.
As Uganda moved to ease lock down restrictions, Okia appeals to the government to focus on empowerment and protection of women whose economic activities were most affected by the lock down.