Gender Equality Zimbabwe Project #31868

SWATT-TEAM: sexual violence responders in Zimbabwe

by Oasis Zimbabwe

SWATT-TEAM: sexual violence responders in Zimbabwe

Project Report | Mar 12, 2019
Much to celebrate...

By Asha Emmerson | Oasis Zimbabwe CEO/Country Director

Trauma recovery training

We are delighted that 237 community champions and stakeholders have now been trained as SWATT-TEAM members, and momentum continues to grow as we learn together. Here are some of our highlights of the past few months:

Two ‘safe spots’ have been set up in one of the high-risk communities where our SWATT-TEAM members live. These are places where survivors can be assisted by SWATT-TEAMs to access medical care, report crimes and contact safe extended family members. In the past few months 57 people have been supported, including survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child marriage. The majority have been female, but we have also been able to assist some male survivors.

Following Oasis Zimbabwe’s workshop with representatives of 30 primary and secondary schools in December, in partnership with the local Member of Parliament and his team, the schools have implemented SGBV reporting boxes. The schools are also rolling out ‘Youth Learning and Advocacy Groups’, focused on advocacy around keeping girls in education to reduce their vulnerability to SGBV. This includes addressing the need for sanitary ware, and Oasis Zimbabwe has begun to produce washable pads in response to this.

In February Oasis Zimbabwe hosted an intensive training week for 20 SWATT-TEAM members who are teachers in our Early Childhood Development centres. The training focused on trauma recovery and healing play interventions for child survivors. The 20 teachers were supervised to implement five one-on-one healing play therapeutic sessions for 24 children during the week, and have now begun implementing healing play therapy sessions across Oasis Zimbabwe Early Childhood Development centres.

Also in February, the Oasis Zimbabwe team was delighted to host the Canadian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr René Cremonese, as we visited a SWATT-TEAM community meeting in Goromonzi. During the Ambassador’s visit, we were very encouraged when male community leaders stood together in the meeting and publicly stated their support of the SWATT-TEAMs initiative, and the work we are doing together to address SGBV. While Oasis Zimbabwe’s focus has been on training and empowering women and girls to change their mindsets and speak out with a communal voice, we recognise that men have a critical role in reducing the social acceptability of SGBV. We are excited that discussions around traditional gender roles and SGBV prevalence have been initiated with male community leaders through our SWATT-TEAMs.

Thank you once again for your generous support, which is helping to grow our community movement. Please continue to give and share our page so we can reach our $50,000 goal!

Healing Play

Trauma recovery training 2

Trauma recovery training 3

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Dec 12, 2018
The Power of The "Small" Things

By Asha Emmerson | CEO

Boy has this proven true for so many of us in our SWATT TEAMs over the past couple of months! While we are learning how to effectively handle and refer the “bigger”, confidential cases we encounter in our communities, we are realizing how many things go un-noticed within our communities that contribute toward normalizing aspects of sexual and gender-based violence.

Just within our Oasis Zimbabwe team, we have had two instances where team members have suddenly recognized daily occurring practices have required them to confront community to think differently. In the video, Barbra, shares her experience of standing up to the practice of mini bus (aka “kombi”) public transport conductors encouraging teenaged girls come and sit on their laps and using the excuse that they are “helping passengers” when the kombi is full.

https://youtu.be/pt8pXN7yswI

Additionally, a team member stopped to address a group of young men who were using sexually explicit language with a group of young ladies who were walking to their lessons, and another SWATT TEAM member confronted a sect leader who began to refer to the body of a child present, as well as engaging the girls mother and other women present in dialogue when they expressed their sentiments that the man’s interest could lead to the possibility of the young girl becoming his wife. She engaged them around the violence and illegality of child marriage, eventually winning them over to recognize the danger the man was actually posing to the child. A good thing, as he was arrested a couple of weeks later.

These and numerous other examples SWATT TEAMs have shared during our training times, have highlighted just how effective our approach to addressing trauma and resulting mindsets is. We are digging deeper, growing more confident, and beginning to see active impact together.

In the last months over 200 community members have participated in the monthly SWATT TEAM trainings, our next training is December 13th, and we anticipate an additional 15 young women (aged 16-24) and a number of their parents/caregivers to join us for the first time.

On November 29th, our CEO participated in an event hosted by the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust marking #16DaysOfActivism in which she was asked to present a “Situational Overview of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Zimbabwe” to Members of Parliament. The event which was attended and supported by several partner organisations and supported by the Canadian Embassy and Ambassador, effectively created the space to bring a very real picture of what is happening within communities when it comes to sexual and gender based violence, and to dialogue with Ministers of Parliament about how they can effectively partner to eliminate the large gap between the very strong laws we have in Zimbabwe and the current lack of application of those laws on the ground.

December 7th, in partnership with the area Minister of Parliament and team, we held a training workshop for 55 science teachers and heads of departments for 30 primary and secondary schools and were joined by the District Schools Inspector and his team, had one of our Ministers of State stop by to bring two of her team to the workshop and to fully endorse the work we are doing around addressing issues that cause our girls to drop out of school and increasing their chances of experiencing sexual and gender based violence, child marriage etc. Youth clubs will be initiated at the schools at the start of the 2019 school year, and will engage young boys and girls to bring their voices to the table in addressing those issues.

This week, we are furnishing our first community based safe spot, with the second due to be set up early 2019.

Once again, you continue to be a part of this community movement through your support. Step by step, we are learning, we are growing and we are beginning to thrive! We would be honored if you would share our page with friends, family, work places or organizations who are looking for a great cause to invest in on behalf of themselves, or others for the holidays.

Thank you! May you find the true value in and power of the “small” things this season.

Links:

The Small Things Matter

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Sep 14, 2018
Champions SWATTing It Out of the Park!

By Asha Emmerson | CEO, Country Director & HDP Expert

Learning The Impact of Our Choices on Each Other

The confidence after four monthly training sessions with close to 100 women plus team members each, is growing, and the colours of our community champions are showing. These amaizing women have begun to notice and identify incidence of abuse within their communities and actively engage around how to effectively address them. And in our last session we were all profoundly impacted as we heard firsthand of how the trauma and addressing deep cycles of poverty training and techniques we have been building on habitualising saved a life.

Conversations about the SWATT TEAMs community movement has stirred other community stakeholders, including two police units, and planning around providing Victim Friendly Unit officers with trauma and Hidden Dynamics of Poverty (HDP) training is currently under way with both units. One of our key stakeholders leading in medical treatment for rape survivors will be attending our training and strategy sessions, learning with us, providing specific training on steps to take when assisting rape survivors to receive care within the critical 72 hour window, and responding to and dialoguing around the SWATT TEAM champions questions as they forge this path and learn to navigate the needs of survivors within their communities. Everyone is very excited about a self defense session we have planned.

With your generous support, and through the incredibly genrous support of the Canadian Embassy in Zimbabwe - although not via this platform - we are half way to our finacial goal toward training 1000 SWATT TEAM members, establishing and capacitating safe houses, assisting survivors to medical, legal and other supportive service appointments, and in supporting education/skills development for young women! Over the next few months, we will be training an additonal 200 SWATT TEAM champions, increasing our engagment of men in addressing this issue, establishing 2 of our overall targeted community safe spots, as well as increasing our support of survivors in accessing medical care and other vital important follow up through your support. This includes support through specific savings pots SWATT TEAM members have established and are contributing into themselves to assist with survivor transportation for these services.

Awareness is changing, mindsets are changing, responsibility toward the future we want for our mothers, sisters, nieces, daughters, granddaughters is growing, not through a programme, but through a community movement that you are a part of.

Please consider continuing to give, sharing this work and our Global Giving link with your family members, your colleauges, your social and church groups. The more we are able to raise toward our goal of US$50,000, the more lives you and us are able to impact generationally. Thank you again for being apart of this priviledged journey.

The faces of Champions!

Links:

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