A group of activists comprising young men and women representing different civil society organisations on Saturday 11December 202, called for zero tolerance against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in society.

The event was held at Palma Rima Beach in Kololi, the group of young men and women walked through the beach chanting in and holding banners that read, I am a survivor, not a victim, Women are to be protected, speak up and Act now, enough is enough, do not rape women; among others.

The activity was in line with the 16 days of activism against SGBV which is an annual international campaign that usually kicks off from 25 November to 10 December.

The period is dedicated to advocacy for the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. The theme for this year is “Orange Gambia, end violence against women now!” 

Satang Dumbuya, Advocacy and Campaign Officer of the Network Against Gender-Based Violence called for collaboration in the fight against eliminating gender-based violence while pointing out that women and children are the most vulnerable people in the society. 

She said empowerment of women should be everybody’s business, emphasizing that the goals cannot be achieved if men are not in the forefront.

“Women empowerment is everybody’s responsibility in making sure the rights of women and children are respected,” she said. “We have been focusing on women empowerment but now we are also focusing on children and men because we have men who are also victims of sexual and gender based violence. We want this to end.”

Sainabou Baldeh, Representative from Sound Mind Gambia, said the focus of their organization is on giving psychosocial support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. 

She added that it requires a lot of strength for survivors of gender-based violence to recover mentally from sexual violence. 

“Our focus is to make sure everyone has a good mental well-being in the country,” she said. “We give people psychological support to help them recover from trauma.”

She further stated that societal perspective is another factor that affects survivors. This she said needs to be addressed. 

“People are ill informed about what mental health is and how they can help people to recover from such,” she noted. “We help them without given medications or taking them to ‘Tanka Tanka’ (place for mental ill are taking in Gambia).”

Among the challenges highlighted by various speakers in combating gender-based violence is a lack of collective responsibility in reporting SGBV cases, proper data record and access to finance and mobility. 

Other speakers includes physically challenged individual and survivor of sexual and gender-based violence who commended the organizers of the event and called on the society to speak up and help fight violence against women and girls.

 

By Dawda Baldeh