Development
In Lusaka, far from the residential districts, informal, densely populated areas have emerged over the last decade, where people from rural areas flock in search of a better life. These are neighborhoods with a high concentration of poverty, unemployment, and social distress in all its forms, where women are victims of social, cultural, and domestic violence, and where minors are at high risk of abuse, malnutrition, school dropout, and exploitation. In the largest and most degraded of these compounds, Kanyama, the STOP THE VIOLENCE project has been underway since 2018, initiated and supported by the PRO.SA Foundation.
Violence against women, even at a young age, is a widespread phenomenon in Zambia, as in many other African countries. The reasons behind this phenomenon are primarily cultural: the female gender is assigned a subordinate role to males, and this subordination is manifested in all areas of a woman’s life, including the sexual one. The phenomenon crosses all social classes but is even more evident and dramatic in the slums, where alcohol abuse, low education levels, and the trap of poverty fuel violent behaviors against women and often its most weak and vulnerable members (orphans and girls or women with physical and/or mental disabilities).
Gender-based violence is one of the contributing factors to the spread of HIV/AIDS: Zambia is one of the most affected countries in Southern Africa by the pandemic. Over the last 20 years, progress has been made in combating Gender-Based Violence, with the establishment of anti-violence units (Victim Support Units) in many police stations (including one in Kanyama), the creation of a dedicated ministry for the promotion of women’s rights, and the enactment of a 2011 law to protect women victims of violence, which includes the opening of shelters for women whose lives are at risk. However, in the absence of resources, these objectives remain only on paper. Women rarely report incidents, and even more rarely do cases go to court: the majority of women are not even aware of their rights and consider it “almost normal” to be beaten by their husband if they violate their marital duties. From childhood, women are exposed to rituals and initiations involving modifications of their genitals, which primarily aim to teach them to be submissive to men and to always please them. Economic dependence (often associated with a low level of education) or simply having no other place to sleep or seek refuge discourages reporting. Often, even the woman’s family of origin refuses to take her back if she is a victim of violence: the woman has been “bought” by the husband’s family and is considered his property, which cannot be taken away from him.
In this context, it was necessary and urgent to intervene to offer support to victims and initiate or breathe life into a cultural process that would remove the aura of “normality” surrounding gender-based violence prevalent in the slums. Faced with such a dramatic situation, the PRO.SA Foundation launched the Stop the Violence project, which led to the opening of an Anti-Violence Unit at Kanyama public hospital in October 2019, the only outpost to address such a widespread phenomenon. The unit is coordinated by an Italian operator, with two counselors and a paralegal working there. The Anti-Violence Unit offers victims free assistance in various forms: a listening space, accompaniment to access medical care and obtain the necessary health certification to initiate legal proceedings, home visits, legal advice and assistance in court, couple counseling, and parenting support. The Stop the Violence team interfaces daily with various police stations, where they often have to contend with cultural prejudices of all kinds, which downgrade violence to normal customs within a family. The daily effort of the Stop the Violence operators is to make victims aware of their situation and their rights, and to train and hold accountable those responsible for certifying violence and protecting victims. It is a complex job, emotionally challenging, that takes the form of a cultural battle against gender stereotypes and in defense of the integrity and dignity of women and minors.
In 2021, “ULEMU no one excluded” was established, a local organization and partner of the PRO.SA Foundation, created to better coordinate all ongoing activities and projects, and the only entity in Kanyama that supports victims of violence. Its name, in the local language, means “respect.”
In the three-year period from 2021 to 2023, the Anti-Violence Unit welcomed 4,792 victims of physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence. Of these, 1,389 were minors.
Read the REPORT to discover the activities carried out in 2022.
Read the REPORT to discover the activities carried out in 2023.
