Réseau des Femmes Oeuvrant pour le Development Rural (Réseau des Femmes) in partnership with UN Women Rwanda, is implementing the project named “Empower and Include (E&I Project): Combating Gender Based Violence through empowering local security organs and Community in Nyarugenge and Gasabo Districts.
It is in that framework that on January 31st, in Kinyinya sector, Gasabo District, Réseau des Femmes organized a dialogue gathering together different local security organs (duty bearers) including community policing committees, agents of the District Administration, Security Support Organ (DASSO), youth volunteers and Inshuti z’Umuryango (Friends of Families) and their partners (couples) to discuss their role in fighting GBV.
During the dialogue, the Legal Representative of Réseau des Femmes Mrs UWIMANA Xaverine explained that all these local security organs play a key role in combating Gender Based Violence (GBV)” in their daily work.
She said that they also decided to engage their spouses so that they can take the lessons together regarding family conflict resolution and fighting GBV. She believes that leadership starts on a personal level before it extends to one’s family and eventually the community.
Speaking to the occasion, the Executive Secretary of National Women Council Mrs Jackline Kamanzi appreciated these trainings and urged local security organs and community policing groups to use what they have learned in their daily work and continue to fight against GBV in their families and community.
On the other side of trainees, Mr Concorde Bahebayo who is in charge of security in Kagugu cell, Kinyinya Sector, said that through the training, they learned how to talk to a person who has a conflict with their family or someone who faces GBV and thank Reseau des Femmes for these kind of trainins.
“Before getting the training, we were doing it unprofessionally. To some of us, GBV had become like a culture where we would think it was normal if a man beats a woman, but today, we know it is violence and we advise those who still do it to stop,” he said.
He adds that they learned how to help teenage girls who faced GBV to access medical care and justice, which he said helped their community to thrive.
