GBV cases on the rise

THE battle against the scourge of gender based violence (GBV) has seen many new disturbing twists over the past few months but there is now more hope for reform following efforts made by several organisations that seek to provide safe haven and counselling for victims, while extending awareness and reform skills to GBV perpetrators.
Recently, in the media Zambia National Men’s Network for Gender and Development (ZNMNGD) national coordinator Nelson Banda stated that over 200 men had been abandoned by their spouse following loss of income due to Covid-19.
Mr Banda disclosed that around 270 men attended counselling sessions between June and September, 2020 at the Men’s Comfort Centre under the auspices of ZNMNGD in Lusaka’s Northmead area.
“The 270 cases handled in a period of four months shows the urgency to reach out to men to seek counselling when pressed with serious emotional challenges which is not good for their health. Out of the 270 men that were handled, 34 are former GBV perpetrators who have been transformed into responsible men” he said.
The nature of counselling ranges from physical abuse as a result of marital conflicts, broken homes, attempted self-harm or suicide, broken relationships, conflicts over property, divorce, financial disputes among others.
The Men’s Comfort Centre was established to provide counselling to men and encourage them to break the culture of silence to enable them report matters of abuse against them including gender based violence and also to transform men who have been perpetrators of gender based violence into responsible men.
He says the network is encouraged to note that more and more men are coming out to seek counselling and we wish to urge men to take advantage of the Men’s Comfort Centre to seek emotional counselling and break the culture of silence of living in denial as the Centre is meant to provide healing to broken souls.
This is just as well, because cases of Gender Based Violence have risen to 7,640 countrywide in the third quarter of 2020 compared to 6,788 recorded during the same period in 2019.
According to Police Spokesperson Esther Katongo this is a 19.8 percent (%) hike.
In a statement to ZANIS in Lusaka , Ms Katongo stated that the third quarter of 2020 disaggregated data indicates that 1,849 children were abused countrywide representing 24.2 percent of all the victims of GBV.
She indicated that out of the 1,849 child victims, 1,363 were girls representing 74 percent while 486 were boys representing 26 percent of all abused child victims respectively as well as 4,425 women and 1,366 men were abused countrywide representing 58% and 18 % respectively.
Ms Katongo also disclosed that Lusaka Province recorded the highest number of child defilement cases with 301 translating to 42% of the child defilement cases reported countrywide with Central Province having recorded 102 cases translating to 14% followed by Eastern Province with 89 cases translating to 12%.
She pointed out that Southern Province had 48 cases translating to 7% and Copperbelt Province recorded 44 cases translating to 6% of all the reported defilement cases.
“Others are North Western with 35 cases representing 05%, Luapula, 27 representing 04%, Western and Muchinga recorded 23 each representing 3% each, Northern had 20 representing 03%.118 rape and 21 attempted rape cases were recorded during the period under review. The country also recorded 36 cases of indecent Assault out of which 25 victims were women, 10 girls, and 01 boy. 28 cases of incest were recorded in which 14 were girls, 10 women while 04 were boys as victims,” she said.
Under Physical Abuse, Ms Katongo said the country recorded 2,368 cases translating to 31 % of the reported cases of which 394 tanslating to 17% were males, 1,762 cases translating to 74% were females, 98 cases translating to 04% were girls and 114 cases translating to 05% were boys.
Sadly, during the period under review 25 GBV related murder cases compared to 23 recorded in the third quarter, of 2019 were recorded.
Under Economic Abuse, 452 cases of failing to Provide Necessities of Life and 351 cases of Neglecting to Provide Necessaries were recorded translating to 10.3% and 7.9% of reported cases respectively.
“It has been observed that during the initial stage of COVID-19, victims of crime were hesitant to report GBV cases due to misinterpretation of some COVID-19 preventive measures such as the Social Distancing and Stay at home campaigns. The Zambia Police Service has been working closely with cooperating partners in providing support to victims of crime as part of the COVID-19 response and in ensuring that Victims of GBV continue accessing essential service from the institution,” she stated.
The fact that men and boys too are victims of GBV should not be taken as a joke but should receive as much attention – because it is known that very often victims of abuse turn into the worst kind of perpetrators.
The Men’s Comfort Centre, the first of its kind in Zambia to offer counselling services to men and boys is also rehabilitating men who have been perpetrators of GBV so that they can turn into good husbands and partners.
Hopefully, more people can seek help to help bring down the numbers of GBV and create a safe environment for men, women and children.