By Noel Mkwaila
Pepeta Malawi, a branch of Pepeta Africa, says gender based violence in Malawi has turned into a pandemic following the rise in cases of sexual violence against women and girls.
National Coordinator for the organization, Tawonga Msowoya, has made the sentiments in an interview saying the rise is because of lack of follow ups on past offences relating to the case.
Msowoya said despite the fact that GBVs are of different kinds, sexual violence against women and girls is the main feature that has characterized the act so far but victims are not seeing justice.
“We need to have a strong referral and follow up systems since as it is most of the cases remain unreported because many don’t see justice or else the case gets lost,” she said.
Msowoya added that places such as schools, hospitals and workplaces where males and females gather need to have places where one can confidentially report when they experience GBV.
Pepeta Malawi’s sentiments have come as the country is within 16 days of activism that was launched on November 25, 2020 and is expected to end on December 10, 2020
According to Tawonga Msowoya, the organization is currently giving an interactive platform where women and girls are sharing and discussing how to withstand and deal with the cases of gender based violence.
However, since the situation has turned into ‘pandemic’, Msowoya suggested that there is a need of providing more psychological support to victims of the circumstances.
“If its communities, there is a need of creating more drop in centres where people can be reporting their experiences and this can be achieved through coordinated efforts,” she said.
She also suggested that law enforcers, social workers and other stakeholders should bang their heads together and come up with ways of ending the vice amidst the already staged solutions.
The National Coordinator therefore pleaded with authorities to continue executing efforts even after 16 days of activism elapse.
Pepeta Malawi (Pepeta Africa) aims at formalizing advocacy for young women and girls hence the intervention in the GBV.
Meanwhile, various stakeholders are still working on finding lasting solutions on the vice as others are emphasizing on mindset change among perpetrators as the best solution.
