With funding from EIRENE, ACFODE has for the last 3 years been implementing a project entitled “Prevention of Sexualized Violence against Women and Girls” in Kisoro and Pallisa districts. The project sought to enable women and girls to realize their full potential by living a life free from sexual violence (rape, defilement and any other form of sexual harassment) since more often than not, women and girls are affected extremely by such evil acts.
Last year however, the first phase of the project came to an end.
Nonetheless, we are more than pleased to report EIRENE has offered to support ACFODE in another phase of this project that will run for the next 3 years i.e. 2012/2014.
The new project entitled “Prevention and Handling of Cases of Sexual Violence against Girls and Women” will focus on Kisoro District and will put a spotlight on national level advocacy and enforcement of women’s rights in Uganda.
The project’s main objective is to contribute to supporting women’s rights and banning discrimination against women through public institutions in Uganda. Its goal is to ensure that women and girls in Kisoro are socially and culturally empowered to enforce their rights and suffer less from sexual violence.
Amongst the main activities planned for this year is the opening of an ACFODE chapter in Kisoro Town. Since there is no other organisation working directly with human- and women’s rights in Kisoro we saw the urgent need to do so. ACFODE will have one project staff based in Kisoro. S/he will be well versed with local conditions and able to speak the local language. S/he will also be supported by a counsellor for psychosocial support and possible legal advice. This will fill a great gap i.e. service delivery and will also enable women and girls in Kisoro to enforce their rights and suffer less from sexual violence.
Cooperation with the existing CODERASH (COmbating DEfilement, RApe and Sexual Harassment) will be continued and new committees in other sub-counties will be founded. This is because the intervention proved very successful in the first phrase of project implementation since many cases of sexualised violence were been handled, followed up and prevented through the efforts of the CODERASH Committees. Also, a strong focus on strengthening relations with school environments will be set. Already, the project has a good partnership with the inspectorate of schools. This however has been trickled down to the actual school communities since sexualised violence within their settings is still rampant.
Kisoro was selected because it was one of the marginalised districts in the country in terms of interventions meant to battle sexualized violence. This coupled with its common borders with Rwanda and the DRC challenges the project with its uniqueness. In this instance, ACFODE will study the cross-border issues and try to incorporate them in this project for further impact.
Beneficiaries are the girls and women of Kisoro who are affected by sexual violence. In the extended target group there are further members of government as well as all men and women in the project area who are to be informed about human and especially women’s rights through awareness-raising measures therefore ensuring less crimes and a more stable and safe society for everyone. On the national level, female and male members of parliament are one of the most important target groups since ACFODE will need their support when it comes to lobbying laws and policies aimed at preventing violence against women and girls.
Already, ACFODE has received technical support for the project from EIRENE. Recently, colleagues from EIRENE Germany, Mr Martin Lohnecke and Ms Iris Bildhauer came for a visit at ACFODE/Uganda to see the good work done during the last three years and to also discuss further prospects. Both were impressed by ACFODE’s efforts, results and the high motivation of the secretariat!
Feel free to get in touch with us in case of recommendations or queries. We promise to keep you posted on future activities.
Sincerely,
Patricia Otuka-Karner
Technical Assitant EIRENE – ACFODE
patriciakarner@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment