Thirteen-year-old Tamara Mbewa finishes her drawing of a spread human fingers with the words ‘Speak Out!’ and steps back to stare at it.
This, she says, is one way that teenagers and adolescents can help prevent cases of gender-based violence (GBV) while ensuring culprits are brought to book.
She is among tens of teenagers attending the Peperusha Binti training and awareness programme on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and GBV.
Away from the normal training and talks, the teenagers from Kisumu have a chance to express their thoughts on GBV through art.
Tamara explains that it is important for girls to understand GBV at a tender age, as quite a number end up as victims without realising.
Vulnerable
“As teenage girls, we also have a role to play towards prevention of violence against women and girls, who are considered vulnerable, by knowing our rights and speaking out,” she shares.
“We have been enlightened on creating awareness in families through boosting interactions, knowing our rights and speaking out in case we, or those around us, are subjected to violence.”
Also in attendance is 16-year-old Nikita Cynthia, who admits that she can now easily identify and report GBV cases, thanks to the training. She explains that many times, such violence go unreported because of lack of awareness.
“A number of women and girls still treat violence as normal, but times have changed; it is time both women and men explored equal opportunities without being biased, ” she explains.
Women and girls have, over the years, formed a higher percentage of the victims of abuse at home, in the community and work places.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), in all societies, women and girls have less power than men over their bodies, decisions and resources.
Social norms that condone men’s use of violence as a form of discipline and control reinforce gender inequality and perpetuate GBV across the globe, with women and girls, especially adolescents, facing the greatest risk.
Between 2005 and 2020, some 14,200 children were victims of forced marriage, sexual exploitation, and other grave forms of sexual violence, with 97 pe rcent of the affected being girls.
Unicef further states that about one in three women and girls worldwide experience physical violence in their lifetime.
It is for this reason that Peperusha Binti, an organisation championing women’s and girls’ rights, took the initiative to train the girls as they are considered the most vulnerable.
Forms of GBV
GBV includes intimate partner violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation and sexual violence. Peperusha Binti executive director Jesscah Awuor says their main aim is creating awareness of SRHR and ending GBV.
“The cases of GBV keep increasing and young girls, women and adolescents are the most affected,” she says.
“We work with Kisumu County Gender and Technical working group in an effort to end cases of violence.”
Ms Awuor says they often work with men ,although the major challenge is that most of them are never willing to open up. She explains that the organisation runs a programmes dubbed Sauti Yangu, which targets adolescents in school, and Binti Dialogue, which targets adolescents and women out of school.
This year, she says, they resorted to art to create awareness of GBV to break boredom due to verbal communication and make discussions interesting.
“During our outreaches, we allow the women and girls to share their thoughts on what they think about violence and inequality through drawing and acting,” she says.
Ms Awuor explains that the training and awareness programs had seen more women coming out to report cases of violence.
According to her, when more cases are reported, it can only mean residents understand what violence is. She adds that the country should be worried the moment the number of cases reported go down.
“That can either mean the cases have reduced or that the perpetrators are left to roam around freely without any actions taken against them by the authorities,” she says.
She further urges women to stop normalising violence in their homes. She says they train the girls at a young age so that they know what violence is and why they should report cases.
She says that since its establishment in 2018, the organisation always participates in the 16-day campaign against GBV. This year, they incorporated drawings, plays, face paintings and plays in an effort to create awareness.
“Speaking about GBV is never enough. The conversation may get boring, arts, on the other hand, is interactive; the adolescents get an opportunity to express their thoughts, which comes with lots of impacts,” she says.
She has, however, raised concerns about lack of safe houses, which derails justice for victims. In most cases, the victims may choose not to report the perpetrators or not to testify against them because of the fear of being pushed away from their homes. BY DAILY NATION