GITEGA February 27th (ABP) – The Collective of women’s associations and NGOs of Burundi (CAFOB), in collaboration with the association of disabled women (AFH les Vaillantes) and international rescue committee (IRC), organized, Tuesday February 20, 2024, in Gitega (center of the country), an advocacy forum on the fight against gender-based violence.
That forum brought together representatives of the communal and provincial administration, representatives of the Justice sector, representatives of the education sector as well as representatives of the Ministry of National Solidarity, Social Affairs and Human Rights. and gender from the commune to the provincial level. That was as part of the execution of the project to strengthen Burundian civil society against gender-based violence “PRESCIBU Tuyatuze”.
The person in charge of PRESCIBU, Mr. Jean Marie Bizoza reported that the main objective of the said forum was to present the actions of the advocacy plans developed by the civil society organizations “CSOs” which are implementing that project in order to enrich them.
For example, among the advocacy plans developed and presented by civil society organizations as part of the effective fight against gender-based violence is the strengthening of the “All at School” project. That project emphasizes the education of girls and the establishment of educational establishments favoring all categories of students, including those living with disabilities.
Another advocacy plan presented concerns the involvement of 50% of girls and women in decision-making bodies at village level by December 2027. According to Mr. Bizoza, that will allow victims of violence based on the kind of revealing the violence suffered in order to benefit from medical assistance and to take legal action against the perpetrators of those scourges.
Citing the UNFPA report in 2018, Mrs. Solange Nisabwe, project manager at “les vaillantes” association, noted that women with disabilities run up to more than 10 times the risk of being victims of sexual violence. Mrs. Nisabwe indicated that 40 to 68% of young women with disabilities experience sexual violence before the age of 18.
Based on the presentations of the advocacy plans, the PRESCIBU manager invited the participants in that forum, as well as other actors involved in the sector of the fight against gender-based violence to take ownership of those advocacy and to redouble efforts with the aim of eradicating that scourge which affects not only human health but also which handicaps the development of families and the country. To that end, he indicated that that would be the best way to support the President of the Republic Mr. Evariste Ndayishimiye in his vision of Burundi, an emerging country in 2040 and developed in 2060.