Gender Equality Uganda Project #47337

Support Women in Uganda to flee Domestic Violence

by Voice of Women Uganda (VOWU)

Project Report | Feb 4, 2022
Support women in Uganda to flee Domestic Violence

By Tumukunde Meldah | Project Leader

Women gatherings are up building and refreshing

With the reopening of schools in Uganda, ending the world’s longest shut-down of nearly 2 years, many families faced an additional burden covering fees and other school costs after the economic pain caused by pandemic curfews and lockdowns. In already cramped and insecure housing children began to suffer the additional stress and stigma that befall families struggling to make ends meet. This exacerbated economic strain caused tensions and conflicts in households and reports of family violence sadly increased. Our counselling, mentoring and mediation work increased accordingly. Also, the magnitude of the effect of the pandemic on domestic abuse has become clearer once the lockdown-type measures have been lifted, and as a consequence, our work to ensure appropriate support for survivors of violence also multiplied. Health shocks caused by the pandemic also increased sexual reproductive health risks for women and girls and VOWU’s Mother’s Care Medical Centre continued to prove vital in assisting women to make better health choices and in meeting the need for basic health care services in rural communities.

Despite the many obstacles and challenges, the last few months were also marked by exciting events for our organization.

November 21^st marked a milestone anniversary for VOWU, our 10th YEAR ANNIVERSARY! To celebrate this special day, we were delighted to unveil the brand-new logo of VOWU, highlighting the power of Ugandan women bonding together and strengthening one another. And we are also happy to share with you VOWU's special Anniversary Report 2011-2021. We invite you to read it online at https://tinyurl.com/VOWU-report2021, hoping you will enjoy seeing through this report how our organization has grown over the past decade. The achievements of our organization are the results of the combined efforts of every individual so CONGRATULATIONS to you too and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

We were also proud to join GBV Prevention Network and its 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence Campaign. The theme for this year campaign was “16 Days of Rest, Our Collective Resistance for 2021” and we joined in spreading the message in our communities of the importance of creating a conducive environment where women are supported to rest and take care of themselves. To celebrate the end of this important campaign we held a special community gathering that in cooperation with Justice Centres Uganda and community leaders, provided education on women’s rights, with a particular focus on their legal and social rights. We also held an interactive panel on how to prioritize women’s wellbeing. We were glad as usual to involve men and boys in the discussion because our realization is that if social change is to be sustained and gender equality is to be achieved, it's essential to engage the whole community including the most influential power brokers.

VOWU is a member of COGE - Coalition for Girl Child Empowerment and during the month of December 2021, we were delighted to give our contribution to a strategic roadmap for 2022 on how to join forces among members to empower young girls suffering the effects of COVID-19.

As we entered 2022, we ignited our activism in the New Year with renewed enthusiasm and confidence. We are counting on your continuous support and passion to strengthen the voice of women in Uganda!

Men's engagement on women's rights

Providing health and maternal care services

A mentoring session outside VOWU office

Training women on self-care

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Oct 6, 2021
Support women in Uganda to flee Domestic Violence

By Tumukunde Meldah | Project Leader

In the recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic with its related restrictions forced us to suspend field activities that required staff to engage with the communities and large groups of people. More emphasis remained on sustaining daily operations and provide counseling, referral and mediation support to women and girls in need. On a daily basis, our counselors continued to receive and interact with women who needed support in managing family and relationship related conflicts.

During the lock down periods, the government health sector invested more efforts in the campaign to end the COVID-19 pandemic at the expenses of other essential health services including maternal health care, therefore, VOWU’s Mother Care Medical Centre spend some time in ensuring that communities in particular women have access to services as family planning services, cervical cancer screening, breast cancer screening, HPV for young girls, HIV counseling and testing, diagnosis and treatment of STIs and UTIs and general health education.

This is the testimony of one of the beneficiaries of these services. “I heard an announcement when I was still sleeping and got so excited about it that I immediately rushed to Voice of Women Uganda offices and I was the very first to arrive! I had a chance to get diagnosed for various diseases and I am very grateful for this opportunity. I discovered that I have an infection and I am so thankful I have already received medication to continue the treatment. I am impressed with the service; the health workers are very friendly and have answered all my questions. I have also learned about VOWU and the good work they do for women. I also need assistance about my difficult family situation and I am happy to learn that they are willing to help me. I am very glad to come back soon for counseling!”

Also, we are very proud of our ongoing creative learning project where survivors of violence have been trained in vocational handcraft: to empower them with skills, knowledge and reliable income for their households through the proceeds realized from this project.So far, our vocational training helped 16 vulnerable women to learn how to manufacture a leather shoe and on how to market their products. We are planning to welcome more women and to organize additional courses in other vocational skills.

This is the testimony of Donah Neumbe, one of the trainees at VOWU’s Creative Learning Centre: "Like any other student on the first day of school, I imagined that it was a tedious procedure to make a shoe, which turned out not to be the case as the teacher demonstrated with patience and explained all the steps taken as we also put our hands on. This training has helped me fulfill my dream of learning how to make shoes. This has built my self-esteem and made me discover the craft woman in me."

We wish to express our deep gratitude to GlobalGiving and all our generous donors for supporting such initiatives intended to build women’s self-reliance and give hope and support to women victims of violence.

Thank you for being part of our community. Without you, none of it is possible.

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Jun 3, 2021
Support women in Uganda to flee Domestic Violence

By Tumukunde Meldah | Coordinator

A woman and her two sons abandoned by the husband

Since February 2021, when we submitted our last report, Voice of Women Uganda has continued to support women through counseling, referral and mediation. This time, more focus has been on collecting and compiling information for the resource directory. Several service providers have been identified and contacted for details of the services they provide. Very useful, authentic and reliable information has been compiled and verified. The resource directory will soon be published and accessed to the women for daily use in referral, information sharing and peer support.

On a daily basis, women are reporting domestic violence cases to including beating, verbal abuse, failure to provide for the family, school fees among others. We have also realized that as a result of COVID-19, more men and women have lost their jobs therefore, have no source of income, at the same time, they are required to provide for the family. This has caused conflicts in relationships to the extent of causing violence. Therefore, in addition to individual counseling, mediation sessions have also been conducted. For this period, 39 women reported cases to VOWU and all received counseling. 29 cases were resolved, 6 cases were referred to police, 2 cases were referred for legal intervention and 2 cases are still pending as the perpetuators have refused to show up. Interestingly, 2 men have also reported cases of violence by their wives. One case has been resolved and another is pending as the woman has also refused to show up.

The management of Voice of Women Uganda would like to thank all of you who have remained committed to supporting our cause by making monthly donations. Kindly share with friends and families to do the same.

Thank you GlobalGiving for the continued support.

For regular updates about our work, visit our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/voiceofwomenuganda and our website at www.vowu.org

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