New Project: Building Citizen’s Resilience in the Promotion of Violence Free Families and Communities

With funding from the Open Society Institute, ACFODE is implementing a one year project on Building Citizen’s Resilience in the Promotion of Violence Free Families and Communities in Oyam and Apac districts.

The project seeks to educate and empower women and girls, as well as men and boys to adopt peaceful and non violent means for resolving conflicts in their lives.

Project objectives include;
 Increasing awareness on Gender Based Violence (GBV) thereby reducing the high incidence of violence against women and girls.
 Inculcating a culture of non violent relationships between men, women, boys and girls within the community.
 Promoting community led advocacy for access to justice by women who experience GBV.

Recently, a community based/ driven approach that involved the selection and training of Community Agents of Change (CACs) was conducted in Oyam district in the sub counties of Loro and Kamdini. 60 CACs were selected on their ability to create awareness and gain the commitment of decision makers and community members for this noble cause. These included; religious and cultural leaders, members of the local council, members of youth, men and women groups as well as health workers. We believe that their support in this project will be a powerful tool to advocate for the changes this project wants to bring about.

After the selection, the CACs were trained on the concepts of human rights, gender based violence and conflict resolution whilst putting emphasize on their roles and responsibilities in the promotion of human rights and in prevention of GBV within the local community.

During the training, they expressed gratitude to ACFODE for involving them in the project because it availed them the opportunity of exercising their power in a positive way. They also realized that as key leaders in the community, they have a greater role to play in responding to and in preventing GBV and as such, made some commitments.

For instance one of the clan leaders in Kamdini Sub County agreed to meet with different clan leaders to discuss so they can deliberate on issues of GBV while bearing in mind that they have a big role to play in responding to and in preventingit. Religious leaders also committed to use their platform to condone GBV while preaching.

However during the trainings, a few shocking issues emerged and they include;
“The whole idea of human rights has broken many families. Women are neglecting their responsibilities because of human rights.” Remark made by one female participant.
“It is okay for men to sleep around with many women for as long as the ‘main’ woman doesn’t find out.” Remark made another female participant.

With such attitudes still in the community, and especially amongst women, I think we all realize and agree that there is still a lot we need to do to address GBV.
Good news is that in response to such comments, clarifications were made by the facilitators and by the end of the training, participants were made to understand and appreciate issues around gender and human rights.

Most participants commended ACFODE for the training. The LC 2 Chair person (Ocini Parish) for instance remarked that “we have had so many CSOs train on GBV but we have never tackled the issue in depth with the way ACFODE has done.” In regard to the trainings also, Community Based Services and the CFPU Departments applauded ACFODE for her efforts in bridging the gap between their departments and the local communities.

Compiled By:
Margaret Ssebunya
Programmes Assistant: Economic Policy Department
Action For Development
Email: smargaret@acfode.org