Tanzania Media Women’s Executive Director Valerie Msoka says sensitization of the political leadership is crucial in fight gender violence

Dignity and rights-based system is one where the rights of all are equally respected, men and women communicate as equals when resolving conflicts and communities are steadfast in support of positive behaviors and gender equity.

Individuals, families and communities must take action to stop gender-based violence in Tanzania. Gender-based violence cannot be blamed on a few aberrant perpetrators.

Rather, these diverse forms of violence stem from the entrenched and enduring low status of women and girls in Tanzania.

We must be committed to working with governments, multilateral institutions, and a wide range of partners – from activists and advocates, to survivors and civil society leaders – to end impunity, and to ensure that laws that recognize women’s equality and right to be free from violence are implemented fully. Men are needed to be promoted in different gender projects so as in ending the violence.

The cultural factors that contribute to gender-based violence rooted in a patriarchal, male dominance system known as Mfumo Dume must be stopped at once. This system supports the imbalance of power between women and men and ends up victimizing both.

Action to promote positive behaviors and end gender-based violence is needed at the individual, family and community levels. Individuals need to learn to deal with conflict in non-violent ways and encourage their peers to do the same.

Families must communicate better to end violence at home and share work and household duties more equitably. Communities must take action to stigmatize all forms of violence and promote gender equity and positive gender norms.

The participants proposed that prompt action be taken to examine the nature, forms and effects of gender-based violence in both rural and urban Tanzania. It was necessary, they emphasized, to include the voices of both victims and perpetrators of gender-based violence, women as well as men.

On a recently survey done in ten districts of mainland and Zanzibar on Gender Equity and Women Empowerment phase two (GEWE 2) by Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) affirmed that women are often brutalized by gender violence whereby men who perpetrate violence against women are psychologically scarred and unable to express their emotions in constructive, non-violent ways.

“Lack of formal system and intensive community sensitization on gender based violence (GBV) is a reason behind the increasing of the violence among the society,” said TAMWA Director Valerie Msoka at the releasing of the report.

Msoka noted that social development structures are needed to be improved to reach grassroots level whereby education is mostly needed among the society.

Msoka noted that more sensitization of local government authorities, health personal, political leadership and religious leaders is needed, adding that it has to cover the procedures as to when and where to report GVB cases.

According to the survey, the total number of respondents was 2,300 of which 23.6 percent were males and 76.4 percent were female whereby 10 percent of them had exposure to GBV against 88 percent who have never had education concerning GBV.

This is happening because there is no formal way of reporting GBV and there is also no established system where communities are equipped with women’s rights and be able to advocate against GBV,said Msoka

She urged the social welfare office to make a tendency of putting records on monitoring the progress of the victim cases and their destination.

There is a need to establish human rights centers in the districts where the community can report on such cases, said Msoka.

She also underlined that awareness messages should be encourage as a way of warning different categories of the community about the dangers of involving themselves in GBV.

Msoka called on the community based organizations to work and expand their services to victims in rural and not concentrate only in towns.