By Tumukunde Meldah | Coordinator
Women quietly experience domestic violence and remain submissive to the violent relationships which result into harm, injuries, disabilities and to the worst death. Victims and survivors of violence lack information on where to go and what do to overcome the situations which undermines their ability to seek justice including services. At Voice of Women Uganda (VOWU), we empower women and girls to understand and exercise their rights and make informed life choices. We challenge abuse of women and help women to rebuild their lives after experiencing violence. Violence leaves women devastated, hopeless, isolated and at constant risk of harm. This project will provide hope, healing and justice to victims and survivors of domestic violence in three communities in Wakiso district.
VOWU has continued to be a resource and link between the service and justice providers and the victims and survivors. In the month of September 2020, VOWU supported 12 women survivors through counselling, referrals, mediation and sharing information. We were able to rescue 4 women who were severely beaten by their husbands as they demanded for care during the COVID-19 lockdown. We provided some food to the rescued survivors.
We have engaged with police officers in various communities to create conducive space for women to freely call in and report any violence incidents, we have continuously worked with the Family and Children Protection Units of police to mediate in resolving conflicts in families especially couples. We have continued to observe that police only handles cases that are reported to them, if women come, they can attend to them, if they don’t come, then they are not bothered. This makes us remain an important link between them and the victims and the survivors and a channel through which victims feel comfortable to report their cases and be supported.
It is our hope that when this project is fully implemented, victims of violence will be empowered to free themselves from abuse, survivors will be more aware of options and support services available and be able to make use of them.
Last but not least, I wish to report to you that through the fundraising campaign on the GlobalGiving platform to which you donated, we raised $1,570 from 22 donors with 24 donations. I am also happy to report that GlobalGiving has considered us for the permanent partnership and an opportunity to reach the required threshold of $5000 from 40 donors. The message from GlobalGiving reads ‘We're so impressed by your organization’s hard work and determination that we'd like to invite you to continue fundraising on GlobalGiving as a permanent partner!’ I want to take this opportunity on behalf of Voice of Women Management to convey our gratitude to you for the generous support that enabled us to reach this far.
I wish to thank the GlobalGiving team for the opportunity given to us to participate in the accelerator. It has been a great experience for us.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
