16 days of activism begin
The 16 Days of Activism campaign against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), is here again and Malawi has joined the rest of the world in observing the days.
The theme for this year is “Let’s challenge militarism and end violence against women”.
This is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991.
Malawi started observing the 16 days in 2001 and since then, each year, the campaign has provided a rallying point for government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community based organisations (CBOs) and other stakeholders in the country to mount events aimed at raising awareness, influencing behaviour change and securing high level political commitment to end gender violence.
National Coordinator for Gender NGO network Emma Kaliya said there is a lot of progress since Malawi started observing the 16 days of activism.
She said in the late 1990’s, people were literally laughing and shouting at campaigners without the knowledge on GBV.
“Slowly, communities and people are starting to embrace GBV issues. When we go to the villages to campaign, a lot of people are able to listen and interact with us,” said Kaliya.
Kaliya said another interesting point is that men now report when faced with GBV to police unlike in the past.
According to the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid), one in every three women will experience GBV in her lifetime.
For many, gender violence begins in childhood and continues throughout their lifetimes.
They include sex selective abortion, battering during pregnancy, coerced pregnancy, emotional and physical abuse, genital mutilation, child marriage, child prostitution, economically coerced sex, sexual abuse in the workplace, marital rape, abuse of women by intimate male partners and abuse of widows.
