SEXUAL GENDER BASED VIOLENCE -SGBV TRAINING ON 5/4/2012 AT BORSTAL INSTITUTION

Following last year’s launch of 16 days of activism against GBV theme of Everyone Everyday Everyway prevent violence against women your way at the Shimo La Tewa Main prison, the Pwani GBV network did a follow up activity through a training to engage the sexual offenders on how best they can prevent violence against women in their respective areas.

The training brought together the Pwani GBV network, the media, police officers and Badilika members of sexual offenders that have come up to be ambassadors of change within the prison and outside after their jail terms. The main objective of the training was to Stimulate individuals to take action to prevent violence against women. The training was focused on inspiring everyday activists who will be able to use their power to create positive changes in the families, work place and communities.

Officers in charge present explained how they were impressed by the changes that the Badilika members have had on other prisoners in the prison. They however had concerns about what happens to female sexual offenders who are outside and what can be done to enhance awareness creation outside the prison. Few suggestions declared that trainings in community forums and advocacy on policy makers could make a change on our communities.

They identified the following gaps in the judicial process that needs to be filled;

According to the sexual offences act, juvenile offenders’ jail term should not exceed 3 years but most of them serve even more than 15 years and are mixed with the adult offenders instead of being at the borstal institutions. There was a need to advocate for judicial proceedings to abide by the law

What happens to the female sexual offenders especially the juvenile offenders? One of the police officers present explained that by the end of the year Mombasa will have girls Borstal facilities in the region.

Participants suggested the following ways of preventing VAW;

• Reporting in relevant institutions for help.

• With permission of authority, the sexual offenders could go out of the prison and advocate, give real personal experiences to the communities even though still serving their terms.

• Religious guide- fear of God. Need for awareness creation even in churches and mosques.

• Demonstration, role modeling programs to create first hand awareness.

• Men to view women as their mothers and sisters and vice versa.

• The sexual offenders be informed on what VAW is and how to prevent them so that they can educate others on the same within and the prison and even after their terms.

• Agape love.

• Every person to take their own responsibilities which causes violence i.e nyeri cases. Economical situation especially in families causes violence.

• Recognition of the rights of children, friends, workmates and everyone in the community.

• Need for a proper channeled communication to understand each other. Need for respect to each other too, especially in families.

• Community awareness on how to respond to GBV on both genders, not just women.

• Strict judicial penalty for offenders

Challenges in advocating for justice on sexual offenders.

• Low motivation- from neighbors’, community and family members

• Corruption at courts; witnesses, prosecutors and judges being bribed, even doctors get bribed to compromise on reporting, sometimes delay with clients knowing it will affect the procedure at the police and even in court.

• Tradition and Culture- there is still the culture of abused masculinity in our communities

Everyday challenges faced as we prevent VAW.

• Stigma from other prisoners with different offences i.e theft, the sexual offenders have been named as immoral and even told that now that they have accepted they are sexual offenders and joined the group, their terms in jail will be extended.

• Fear of being implicated on intruding on family affairs

• Maybe jailed for being a witness and accused of providing wrong information.

• Threats by the perpetrators.

• Culture

Group Work: On Living our beliefs discussion.

The three groups all agreed on the following;

• Need for honesty on the change implementers in order to create an impact in the societies and even within ourselves

• Religious leaders need to be role models in church.

• Most of the things said are not in our hearts, most activists are in fact perpetrators, gave examples of public figures in the activism and political scenery.
  

• Activists need to be role models.

• Community needs to be enlightened on human rights to understand and not to abuse the rights.

• Need to start activism in our homes or work places before creating awareness outside.

• Members gave experiences on the proudest moments of their activism. Both personal and professionally and even at the community.

There was a session on understanding the sexual gender based violence as a component of GBV. The facilitator started with the following case study;

Mark had travelled with his dad and they had an accident on their way back, Mark’s father died on the spot but he survived with serious injuries and was rushed to the hospital. The surgeon who came to attend to him saw him and exclaimed “oh my God, That is my son” How was this possible yet Mark’s father died on the spot in the accident??

Of the 35 participants only two got the answer that the surgeon was Mark’s mother, many answers assumed that surgeon’s are not women’s professions or roles and most of our culture defines women’s roles in the community.

The facilitator therefore took the participants through GBV/SGBV. She explained the difference between Sex- Biological differences and Gender- socially ascribed differences. She also took the participants through SGBV and responding to GBV cases in our communities and understanding on when sexual assault is considered a crime including issues on consent; Factual consent- which is giving a yes or no consent and the Legal consent which explains that clients under 18 cannot legally consent. The two both go together.

Conclusion

The Badilika members were impressed and learnt a lot from the training, the major lesson from their feedback was that unintended activism is harmful to both ourselves and the community and there was need for proper activism to end violence against women.

Facilitators

Betty Sharon- Coast Women In Development

Elizabeth Aroka- International Center for Reproductive Health- Kenya