GITEGA March 12th (ABP) – Gender-based violence constitutes, in Burundi, one of the most persistent and devastating forms of violence. They also remain one of the least reported in communities due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame that surround them.
Mrs. Émilienne Ntiyibagiruwayo, psychologist at the Humura center in Gitega, which is a pilot reception structure of the Burundian government, to provide holistic responses to victims of gender-based violence, affirms that in Burundi, there are women and men victims of gender-based violence. But women are more victims than men, she added.
For example, Mrs. Ntiyibagiruwayo said that in 2021, that center received 1,033 victims of GBV including 775 women, 130 girls, 118 men and 10 boys.
In 2022, the Humura center recorded 1,285 victims including 989 women, 162 girls, 122 men and 12 boys. In 2023, that center welcomed 1,199 women, 171 girls, 160 men and 24 boys. Since January 2024, that center has already recorded 137 cases of gender-based violence.
The general director of the Muntunuwundi service cooperative, Mrs. Daphrose Ntarataze, indicates that she was a victim of gender-based violence in 1972. She is currently a trainer and facilitator of Peace Circles “CdP- Inani z’amahoro”, a tool which especially allows women in general, and victims of GBV in particular, to have a framework for therapeutic exchange in relation to their life story, in order to transform the challenges encountered into opportunities for better living and well-being, with oneself and with society.
She is also a trainer for facilitators and facilitator of the intergenerational Storytelling and Telling & Restorative Circles sessions “CRCR-Ntugatare mu nda. Mvura nkuvure” and trainer and facilitator of Building and Telling a New Story “CRNH-Mpore! Uhoze abandi.”
According to Mrs. Ntarataze, a woman leader is a woman or a mother worthy of her name. It has a role to break the taboo and the silence by doing therapeutic work on oneself, in order to treat possible psychological wounds linked to cases of GBV. It must help victims of GBV to begin a process of healing their memories and must advocate for the prevention and comprehensive management of GBV cases. She called on men to also be supporters of positive masculinity that complements that of women.
She pointed out that a woman leader must raise awareness among the population, knowing that gender-based violence harms the growth, peace and overall development of the family, the community and general society. She is committed to healing their own psychological wounds related to GBV and thus working in synergy to prevent, advocate and take care of GBV cases.
Mrs. Ntarataze calls on the administration to appropriate and integrate into its national program to combat GBV, the approaches and tools of associative stakeholders in the prevention and overall care of GBV adapted to Burundian society and which proof of results and positive impact at the community level.
The vision of an emerging Burundi in 2040 and a developed Burundi in 2060 is not even possible, according to her, as long as gender-based violence is observed almost everywhere in the country.