GBV Victims Assistance Program Uganda

I am a Lawyer and Humanitarian currently working for TASLAF Advocates-Uganda under the human rights and research department. I completed my LLB/Law degree from the University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa in 2017. While at UJ, I worked with Child Village SA, the Boys and girls club of south Africa(Soweto) and tutored family law which gave me an opportunity to explore the family life of many young south Africans as my work included community outreach and research. Because of my passion for children, I am actively involved in several child support organisations in Uganda, like Watoto Support Center where I volunteer with the career guidance staff. However, my most outstanding humanitarian work lies in The Gender Based Violence Victims Assistance Program founded by Miriam Pheona Otengo and myself in 2019. Our Organisation has impacted communities especially children, women and the elderly who are the most susceptible to violence in Uganda.

The project is committed to the prevention of and response to Gender based Violence (GBV) / violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Uganda. We are achieving this through the provision of temporary accommodation (shelters) to survivors of GBV where they are accommodated and provided with all basic needs for a maximum period of 14 days , during which we ensure that they get medical, psycho-social and legal assistance. We create income generating activities for the most vulnerable communities through skills training, as research shows that 80% of the GBV occurs among women in Uganda due to economic dependence. We would like to set up mini shelters at all major police stations in the country and expand our training programs  starting with the northern region which was worst hit by the 20 year long LRA war. These Mini shelter will enable us reach the most remote areas to help multitudes.

Gender Based Violence (GBV) or Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)  is a global pandemic that affects 1 in 3 women in their lifetime, the world bank reports that 35% of women have experienced either physical and/or sexual initial partner or non-partner violence. The Uganda Police Force report 2018/19 states that 50% of Ugandan women aged 15-49 experienced spousal abuse and in 2017 alone 13% of Ugandan women experienced rape, and rape cases are reported every 6 hours. Up to 77.5 billion shillings is lost annually in expenses and lost profit despite the legal and regulatory frameworks put in place to curb this problem. Implementation however remains limited and abuse rampant as reporting of GBV remains low, investigation poor and legal cases experience dismissal more than conviction resulting in impunity for many GBV related crimes. Survivor support services remain extremely limited and uncoordinated as many duty bearers continue to believe that GBV is acceptable, silencing survivors and pressuring them not to report abuse or seek help. Our organisation has therefore come in to close the gap in survivor response area through offering protection and support to survivors, this is being done in conjunction with government and cultural entities.

The GBV Victims' Assistance program Uganda aims to ensure the eradication of GBV and protection of victims by providing them with shelter Mamaz habour)we have so far set up one  shelter but aim at setting up such establishments at every major police station. We have partnered with the Uganda Police Force who ensure the safety of victims at the shelters while they investigate the matter. This is because most victims are married women who find it unsafe to go back home immediately after reporting the matter to the police. We also work with UGANET, a law firm that provides probono legal services to all  survivors we recommend. We coordinate with government hospitals to ensure that the victims get medical assistance like HIV testing for victims of sexual abuse.The organisation also ensures skills development and training especially for victims that are economically dependent. The creation of mini shelters will drastically increase our capacity and ability to help more people across the country.

The project serves all victims of GBV in Uganda with the main focus on women and girls between 15 to 49 years living in the Northern and Eastern regions, as statistics show that GBV in Uganda is most prevalent in the Northern and Eastern Uganda.We work hand in hand with Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to identify the major trends in GBV and channel our resources along those lines and spend time with the victims especially at the shelter involving family, religious and cultural institutions to which the victims are affiliated  so as to identify their specific need and come up with the most appropriate preventative and response measures in a given situation. Most importantly, skills training and requisite materials is provided to ensure that the victims are economically empowered given that GBV in Uganda mainly occurs as a result of denial of resources, opportunities and services to the victims. 

Our project is in line with Elevate Prize's objective of elevating humanity, tackling Gender based violence which takes away ones right to human dignity as enshrined in the African Charter of Human and People's rights and other International Human Rights Instruments. It is also creates awareness eminent problems in society  and aims to solve the extremely complex issue GBV especially in African community where it is usually treated as a personal issue for instance between a particular couple and yet it needs a collective effort to tackle.

Having worked with several non profit organisations during my University studies, I needed to use the knowledge acquired to help others. This desire grew stronger when in December 2017 heard in the cable news and read news paper reports  about Miriam Pheona Otengo a Ugandan living in the United states at the time who had survived a near death experience having been brutally beaten by her husband, a Diplomat appointed by the government of Uganda as a deputy Ambassador to the USA.When this incident happened , she was hopeless as it happened late in the night, in a foreign land. Fortunately for her she was able to get assistance that very night from a shelter in Maryland which provided her with temporarily accommodation and later provided medical, financial, and legal help, this shelter continues to offer  support to in all legal proceedings relating to the matter by providing evidence. This story totally shocked me and  I immediately reached out to Miriam through her Facebook and arranged a meeting after which we decided to start up an organisation not only to help her heal but also help victims of GBV get the same kind of assistance she got.

GBV in Uganda is most prevalent in the northern region from which I come. It is therefore not surprising that from every  household with which I have interacted there is at least a member that has suffered a form of violence. I have become more passionate about this project having interacted with Miriam who  has given me insight on the dehumanizing effect of GBV and enlightened me that this is not a problem of the poor and uneducated, but rather a problem from which no one is immune. I am convinced that through my work of empowering young people both male and female to respect the rights of others to human dignity and also by setting up structures that help implement the protection of all people from violence I will help eradicate this problem from my community and the world. Furthermore the response and positive feed back from the communities we have helped gives me hope and motivation that our effort is not in vain and that we have the necessary skill, knowledge, zeal and human resource to achieve our purpose considering the short period of time we have been in existence and the impact we have had.

My law degree has empowered and given me great knowledge on the legal aspects pertaining to GBV, this enables me to offer relevant and effective legal assistance to the victims. Working in the legal field has also given me an opportunity to build rapport with a number of people, all from different walks of life which has greatly contributed to the  expansion of my professional network, this has proved to be a very necessary aspect in the success of my project so far. Second, having had an opportunity to study and live out of Uganda for a substantial amount of time, I am able to use the knowledge acquired from South Africa which has a relatively more developed GBV victim assistance system as compared to Uganda.Third Being in partnership with a survivor of GBV has given me great insight into the issue and has made me more compassionate to the victims I help. The opportunity of working in several non profit organizations aiming to improve communities has also shaped and imparted skills and competencies such as resilience, patience and people skills which are very necessary for the success of my project. Finally, I have managed to bring very strategic and helpful partners on board from private entities purely providing medical, legal and psycho-social support to government organs like the police helping in investigation and due process. These factors give me the confidence that I am well-positioned to deliver this project. 

In June 2018, just two months into operations, the organisation was faced with a devastating incident when one of our victims, a breast feeding mother of two who had been battered by her husband passed away. The unfortunate event of her death occurred at one of the government hospitals in Kampala where she was being attending to by medical personnel who attributed the untimely event of her death to two major aspects, immense brain damage and delay to seek medical assistance . During this difficult time, we worked hand in hand with the family of the deceased and  the Uganda Police Force to ensure that the case was quickly taken up by authorities who ensured that the perpetrator was prosecuted and is currently serving a jail term.  Since the children of the deceased were left orphaned given the death of their mother and arrest of their father, we took up the children into our care and eventually secured for them a place to stay at Watoto children's home where we periodically check on them.

While volunteering at the boys and girls club of south Africa, I was chosen as team leader for the weekend group. My team was however faced with two challenges, transportation and the threat of insecurity given the fact the club is located in the out skirts of Soweto. In order to curb these problems, I approached my university community engagement team and convinced them to integrate the work we were doing at the club into the university community engagement activities of that year. Having presented an organised and hard working team, the management bought into our idea and we greatly benefited from the free transport they provided for all the teams which enabled us to travel safely and easily to Soweto every Saturday. Being Ugandan, and working with the less prevailed children in Soweto, I was faced with a problem of language barrier, in order to effectively help the children I came up with the language class also know as ''omweso'' at the club to date, during this class, a group of children and volunteers fluent in a particular language would teach those interested in learning that particular language.

Not Applicable

We offer shelter to GBV victims with no where to run, by providing safe spaces for them in our shelters. Majority of these incidences usually occur in very strange hours of the night and this leaves the victims with no where to go as the perpetrators in most cases are spouses. To handle the challenge of access to our facilities we have acquired two ambulances that are available at all time, which is used to pick up victims who are unable to make it to the shelters.  Further more, in order to extend our reach, we have partnered with the Uganda Police Force to set up mini-shelters at major police stations across the country so as to ensure the victims easily access our services. Above all, we have entered into strategic partnerships with other institutions in order to tackle the root cause of GBV which is the denial of resources, opportunities and services to victims, through provision of skills training, employment opportunities to former, current and potential victims to ensure that they are economically empowered. We also connect our trainees to Market for their goods and services to ensure that they have a constant flow of income. All these measures we have put in place have had a very huge impact on the prevention and response to GBV from the time we started and we shall be able to put in place additional measures where need be to tackle emerging issues regarding GBV Prevention and response

My desire is to live in a world where everyone feels safe and secure wherever they might be, whether at home, work or at the cinema. The statistics stated above however do indicate that a lot ought to be done to achieve this dream. My project seeks to provide shelters to victims of GBV but I understand that this is but a drop in the ocean of violence and inequality, For us to achieve the goal of safety and security for all, participation from all stake-holders is a prerequisite, which is why we have involved the government agencies, ministries and departments (especially the Uganda Police Force, which operates under the Ministry of Internal Affairs), we have also initiated community out-reaches to sensitize the all members of society of their rights, responsibilities, duties and obligations regarding GBV. In addition to all the inputs above, we also decided that most of the victims, having ran away from their perpetrators are left with little to nothing to kick start their lives, and we came up with training schemes (in partnership with Lira School of Catering, Lamo Tailoring, Lango Piggery Project) to skill the victims for economic empowerment since they gain skills in catering, tailoring and animal husbandry, all of which can morph into income-generating ventures. We also provide guidance and counselling services to the victims with the hope that they get a semblance of what their normal lives would be had the incident not occurred. In a nut-shell, GBV goes beyond a ''fight'' between individuals, it has a life-long impact on the mental, physical, economic and social affairs of the victims even the perpetrators, our desire is that we get to a point where the cases are eliminated entirely and victims can have their lives (or better lives) back. Guidance & counselling, skills development & training, provision of food, clothing & housing (i.e. the basic needs) are all steps in the right direction but a lot more has to be in done in the preventative stages to reduce or eliminate GBV in totality. It is everyone's responsibility. 

Our project currently serves approximately 500 people annually. The shelter is designed to accommodate 13 people at a time including one care taker however due to overwhelming number of victims we sometimes accommodate up to 20 people at a time. We trained 110 women in catering and hotel management, 200 in tailoring and 303 in piggery and animal husbandry in 2019 and about 350 women and girls are currently undergoing training. The Covid-19 Pandemic has presented an increase in GBV cases especially in Northern Uganda which has led to a spike in the number of people we have dealt with to-date. We therefore hope to serve at least 1,000 people by the end of 2020. In the next 5 years, we hope to have built the capacity to serve 5,000 people annually in our main shelters and the min-shelters set up at police stations. 

Within the next year we hope to inspire, build capacity and co-ordinate with communities and duty bearers like law makers in parliament, the Police, local chiefs and Local Council 1 Chairpersons to ensure that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to deal with the survivors of GBV compassionately and appropriately. Within the next 5 years however have built a system in the grassroots where the survivors act as agents of change in their communities to ensure the complete eradication of GBV. We hope to achieve this through capacity building and training of people especially the victims and providing them with the necessary tools to be able to help those around them, we also hope to have a wider coverage by systematically expanding our reach through out the country so as to be able to extend our services as close as possible to the rural communities.

Despite the many legal and regulatory frameworks put in place to curb GBV such as Domestic Violence and Prohibition of Genital Mutilations Act 2010, Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2009 and the National Policy on  elimination of GBV, implementation remains limited and abuse rampant. This is because many cultural institutions greatly believe that GBV among married partners is culturally acceptable hence silencing survivors and pressuring them not to report the abuse of seek help. Further more, certain practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is deeply enshrined in the cultural and religious beliefs of many societies in Uganda like the Bagisu, Sabiny and Karamojong of Eastern and Northern Uganda respectively. We are therefore faced with resistance from not only the cultural leaders but also the members of the community who believe that we are trying to dilute the culture. Furthermore, most of the communities we are dealing with consists of formally abducted   people we are unfortunately violent not only to the victims but also to our teams and requires a lot of patience when dealing with them.Legal Services remain extremely expensive and inaccessible to many communities especially in the rural areas making it difficult for many of the survivors to access timely legal services. Furthermore, given the  overwhelming rise in GBV  there is a need to expand and we are only limited by money  which will enable us setup more centers and hire more professionals to help deal with the survivors.  

In order to deal with the social and cultural barriers, we hope to continue working hand in hand with government and cultural institutions to sensitize masses especially the cultural leaders, as much as this will require a lot of patience, we believe once the cultural institutions are on board we will be able to eradicate GBV in Uganda. The barriers created due to lack of enough resources will be eradicated through the funding will hope to get from the Elevate prize and other well wishers .

We are currently in partnership with with UGANET, Lira school of caterings and hotel management, lango piggery and animal husbandry project, lamo tailoring school and the Uganda police force. UGANET being a purely probono law firm, helps to legally represent the victims and offer all forms of legal assistance, the other three partners help in skills development and training of the victims and other marginalized  groups especially teenage mothers. These partners offer training to the victims in hotel management, animal husbandry, tailoring and also offer paid internships to the victims before giving them equipment to start up a small business. The most important partner is the police which is usually the first place victims report to when they are abused, the police therefore coordinates with us to ensure that victims enjoy the services we offer to them.

The services we currently offer to our clients are probono, given that most of the victims come to us at their lowest points in life, having lost almost everything they have built in their lifetime, It would therefore be unfair on our part to attach a fee to the services we provide, one would then wonder where we have gotten the funding for all the activities we conduct and the support we offer to the victims, We have been fortunate to partner with some of the most generous and passionate organisations and individuals in the land for example, UGANET has offered probono services in terms of legal advise and representation in courts of law. All our partners providing training, have done so probono since they understand what the victims go through since some of the proprietors have first hand accounts of similar incidences. In the circumstances that we receive donations from well wishers, we ensure that we provide full accountability for the funds received. We have also been fortunate enough to have a couple of medical & psychology students volunteer & intern with us during their school holidays, This reduces the cost of running the establishment. We are in the process of securing more long term donor funding such that we can have permanent staff, increase the scope of our operations and not limit ourselves to only a few regions in Uganda since the victims are spread all-over the world.

Given that our desire is to have an impact on all parts of the world (even the hardest to reach corners of the globe), Financial Stability has been a question on all our minds. We have interacted with a couple of potential partners including a social development analyst at the World Bank, Dr. Acio Maliam who was extremely excited about the idea since it falls directly in line with the plans that the WBG has for Uganda in the next five years. We have thought of developing a GoFundMe page to solicit funds from well-wishes who might personally or otherwise have had an incident of GBV around them. In light of the above, our focus has mainly been on securing grants and donations from well-wishers & partners (both existing & potential). The decision to focus on grants & donations in the short term was based on the realization that the other forms of finance (i.e. debt & equity) are neither feasible nor practical for the time being, Debt providers require significant forms of collateral which we are unable to provide at the moment while Equity providers focus on the Return on Investment (ROI) and since our organisation neither focuses on revenue generation nor profit creation, we cannot guarantee an ROI. Our focus as well is on accountability for the funds received such that we keep our donors & partners updated of the activities, achievements, challenges & plans which ensures future funding.

We are not a revenue generating organization

The funds we require are mainly geared towards establishment of shelters in major police stations all over the country given that these are the first points of contact for GBV victims. We also intend to acquire more motor vehicles to ensure that we are in position to respond to each and every call for help that comes our way in the shortest time possible, We also plan to set up a toll-free call center for guidance & counselling services and even reporting of potential or actual cases by victims, we plan to recruit permanent qualified staff to station at the various shelters which are to be established as opposed to the temporary interns & volunteers that we currently use. The probono training that we currently enjoy might be be a possibility all around the country and given that the current providers are focused in one region alone, it would be prudent to disclose that the training cost might be borne by the organization in the near future. As indicated earlier, we do provide some start-up capital to the victims once we are confident that they have mastered a skill and are capable of converting it to an income-generator.

A more streamlined breakdown of the funds and expenditures is provided hereunder;

Revenue

Grants & Donations

Expenses

Shelters

Purchase of Assets (cars, motor cycles & Technological equipment)

Repairs & maintenance (fuel, driver fees & general repairs)

Staff Costs

Mobilization & Awareness

Training & Development

Business support (to victims)

2020 has had significant interruptions in the way we operate, since the lock-down has been in place for close to four months now. The variable costs have ideally slowed down however fixed overheads remained constant even when we had no activities on-going. We however had some alterations to the initial budget items since online communications became part & parcel of business operations, the spike in the data cost was not one we have envisioned, the purchase of some laptop computers for a few key staff members was also not an item we had budgeted for. A brief forecast of the 2020 expenses is provided hereunder

Construction of shelters $20,000

Purchase of Assets  $40,000

Rent    $6,000 ($500*12)

Salaries $24,000 ($2,000*12)

Utility bills $7,200 ($600*12)

Communication costs $12,000($1,000*12)

Accountability $6,000($500*12)

Legal fees $0(probono service)

Mobilization & Awareness $6,000($500*12)

Total $121,200

The Elevate Prize is an appropriate option for our organisations for a number of reasons, first the The Elevate Prize's goals , objectives and vision aligns with ours on many levels as our main focus is to elevate humanity and doing in with such an organization will help us achieve our goals. Furthermore, the Prize presents not only a substantial amount of financial funding  that will help us expand and grow our organization in the years to come but also offers other forms of assistance such as technical help and publicity plus an opportunity to benefit from your networks .

We hope to benefit from the funding offered by the Elevate Prize so as to be able to build more shelters and offer more capacity building training programs to victims and survivors who will eventually act as agents of change in the fight against GBV in the region. We also seek the mentor-ship and training offered by the experienced team from Elevate Prize to enable our staff, victims and survivors to be able to have a global impact in eradicating GBV. Our organization also hopes to benefit from the Marketing, media, and exposure of the Elevate Prize so as to increase our networks so as to expand the reach of our program.

We would like to partner with Save the children, the red cross society and the Boys and girls club of Uganda. We would like to work hand in hand with save the children especially when dealing with FGM in the eastern part of Uganda since they have a proposed project to start sensitization of masses in Bududa area i believe that if we join forces we will be able to change lives. The Red cross society of Uganda has the largest number of trained volunteers and I believe that when we partner with them we can benefit from their volunteers training program. Finally, because the Boys and Girls club deals with a lot of teenage mothers, we believe that those young girls will benefit greatly from our social and other services like skills training.These partners will help us grow and impact communities more easily.