POLITICAL CRISIS, SEXUAL VIOLENCE

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POLITICAL CRISIS, SEXUAL VIOLENCE HIVThe
absurd co-relation

• Presentation by
• Ms. Dorothy Onyango (OGW)
• Executive Director
• Women fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK)
• Vice-Chair, ICW

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Background of WOFAK

• Founded in 1993 by a group of women who had
  tested HIV positive.
• Registered in 1994 as a national NGO.
• Initially, a forum for mutual support,
  empowerment, experience sharing and learning to
  enhance coping with the infection.
• Currently serving close to 7000 women and 2500
  orphans across 7 resource centres in Kenya

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POLITICAL CRISIS, SEXUAL VIOLENCE HIV the
absurd co-relation

• Politics, in most cases, tend to shape the daily
  lifestyles of any given people, community and
  nation.
• Political crises therefore disturb the
  socio-economic equilibrium, stability and
  cohesion.
• Sexual violence, mainly as suffered by women,
  young girls and children, is the main by-product
  of political crises.
• In such situations, criminal-minded people take
  advantage of lawlessness to perpetuate heinous
  acts against women and girls.

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The absurd co-relation- cont.

• The spread of HIV is promoted more in situations
  of political crises, where rape, unprotected
  sexual intercourse and unsafe needle practices
  become rampant.
• Bigger sections of sexually active populations
  become disinterested or unable to secure safe sex
  in crisis situations.
• Sexual violence, when directed at a woman living
  with HIV, will inhibit her ability to access care
  and deny her the chance to obtain competent care
  including access to and adherence to ART.
• In a wider picture, sexual violence will be a
  serious driver of the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

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The absurd co-relation- cont.

• Political crises and sexual violence therefore
  combine to disproportionately affect National and
  community drive to effectively scale up and
  sustain gains made against HIV and AIDS.
• Mortality and morbidity related to HIV and AIDS
  increase tremendously in situations of political
  crisis and sexual violence, thus nations that
  experience sporadic or sustained political crisis
  will always experience lapses in their HIV
  prevention, care and support efforts.
• Often, such crisis will not only affect the
  concerned nations, but also spiral to the
  neighbouring countries.

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Experiences of the Kenyan post-election crisis

• Kenya went through a dark period of violence
  between Dec 2007 and March 2008 due to disputes
  from the results of the general elections held in
  Dec 2007.
• 350,000 people lost their homes and were
  displaced.
• 1000 people lost their lives
• Property and businesses worth billions were lost
  through fires, vandalism and looting.
• It took the intervention of the international
  community, led by Dr. Koffi Annan, to bring back
  a fragile peace, through a power-sharing pact.

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Effect of the crisis on women, girls and children

• Women, girls and children were displaced in huge
  numbers. More than 60 of the internally
  displaced people (IDPs) were women, girls and
  children.
• Women and girls were subjected to gross abuses,
  including rape and physical violence directed to
  harm and cause fear.
• In the camps for the internally displaced
  persons, women faced sexual violence of high
  magnitude. Cases of rape and gang-raping were
  widespread within and outside camps, yet no one
  dared report, in fear of incrimination, revenge
  and further violence.
• In exchange for foodstuffs, clothing, blankets
  and for security, women and girls were forced to
  provide sexual favors within and outside camps
  during the crisis.

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Cont.

• Internally displaced persons (IDP) camps did not
  have measures for HIV or STI prevention, thus all
  sexual encounters within the camps were risky and
  potentially, a case of HIV infection or
  re-infection.
• Women experienced great difficulties accessing
  HIV and AIDS care services due to insecurity and
  fear of further victimization by armed thugs.
• Those on antiretroviral therapy (ART) had to miss
  their drug refills and clinic schedules.
• There was systematic health deterioration among
  women living with HIV in the IDP camps and even
  outside.
• Many women lost a lot of grounds in terms of
  their health due to all these.

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Kenyan national responses to the crisis

• National responses to the political crisis, in as
  far as HIV prevention, care and support were
  lukewarm and rather focused on relief supplies
  such as foodstuffs.
• There were no measures to provide prevention
  services, especially to the displaced people, and
  there were no measures to support women and girls
  to protect them from sexual violence.
• National efforts were coordinated mainly by The
  Kenya Red Cross Society and a few
  non-governmental organizations and foreign
  diplomatic missions.
• Even the Kenya national AIDS Control Council
  (NACC) came into the picture belatedly and only
  after being prodded by the civil society groups.
  Still the influence was not positively felt.

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National responses to the crisis. (cont.)

• HIV prevention, treatment, care and support
  services were ignored for the internally
  displaced.
• The best that was heard from Government was on
  the return-home program for the internally
  displaced people.
• There were no surveillance systems for tracking
  of new infections and the levels of health
  deterioration for women and children living with
  HIV among the internally displaced.
• To date, no one knows the extent to which the
  post election crisis pushed Kenyan HIV prevalence
  rates.

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WOFAK RESPONSES

• Our responses were triggered by the recognition
  that the majority of the internally displaced
  people were women, girls and children, the main
  focus of our work against HIV and AIDS.
• These responses were also triggered by calls from
  some of our clients who were holed up in one of
  the biggest IDP camps in Nairobi- the Jamhuri
  show ground camp.
• WOFAK was able to mobilize resource from a few of
  her partners, led by the Stephen Lewis Foundation
  and People Bridge Charitable Foundation and
  Concern WW.
• With this, we mounted significant responses to
  support women, girls and children living with HIV
  and AIDS.

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WOFAK responses (cont.)

• Our interventions
• included
• Food provision
• Mobile medical care camps at the IDP camps.
• Trauma and post rape counselling services
• Ambulatory services to health facilities for the
  bed-ridden

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WOFAK responses (cont)

• Other interventions included
• Support counselling
• Supported referrals for further care
• Group counselling at the camps and at WOFAK
  centres
• Provision of blankets, clothes and sanitary
  towels
• We recognize that in the face of such huge and
  ferocious
• Assault on women, girls and children, what we did
  was rather a drop in the ocean, yet we consider
  them as a brilliant effort at salvage.

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THE BIG NATIONAL ASSIGNMENT

• National efforts at disaster preparedness must be
  established.
• Civil society groups must acquire skills for
  disaster responses, especially to protect women
  and girls from sexual abuse during crisis and at
  all times.
• Trainings in gender-based violence recovery, post
  rape counselling, trauma counselling and support,
  need to be mainstreamed in all disaster
  responses.
• Policy mechanisms need to be put in place to
  safeguard women and girls from sexual violence
  and all forms of abuse and to include HIV
  prevention, care and support for the infected in
  emergency interventions.

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The Big assignment

• Security personnel must be made more sensitive to
  cases of violence against women and girls.
• We thank the International support we received as
  a Country and as women, during the crisis.
  Without which we would have been annihilated by
  the violence.
• Finally, we pray in Kenya, that we shall not
  again, encounter the scenes of violence that we
  witnessed between December 2007 and march 2008.

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CONCLUSION

• There is need to protect women and girls in
  situations of political crisis as they are the
  worst affected and suffer sexual violence in such
  situations.
• It would be gainful for nations that experience
  political crisis to mainstream HIV prevention
  education and care within their humanitarian and
  or evacuation efforts, thus limiting the rates of
  violence and HIV infections that accompany civil
  strife.
• There is need for extra vigilance and more
  innovations by civil society groups that work in
  communities that experience political crisis, so
  as to have better mitigation activities directed
  to address effects of political crisis and sexual
  violence against women and girls.
• THANK YOU ALL.