THE UNTOLD TALES OF MOTHERS STRUGGLES IN SEARCH OF PEACE
Anna, 26, witnessed firsthand the consequences of war when she was back in her motherland, DRC, five years ago. She and her family escaped the hard times to seek refuge in the camp of Dzaleka, located in the central part of Malawi in Dowa district.
The sense of hopelessness stunned Anna’s family as she witnessed a lot of people leaving their luxurious homes and running for their lives as gunshots were heard in the province she was coming from. The day before Anna left DRC for Malawi, she thought of the future and what awaited her and her family.
“What will become of me? Where will I end up? What kind of future awaits my children?” Anna recalls asking herself.
However, the troubles she faced in her household when she arrived in the camp with her two children and husband were equally overwhelming. Starting life in a completely new multinational and multicultural setting, Anna encountered gender-based violence.
“my husband would drink excessively. He would start by insulting and beating me, and he was also having extra-marital affairs with other women.”
“Despite doing everything he wanted me to do, in the house, he was still dissatisfied to the extent it was hard for him to provide necessities for me and my children” she recalls.
One day Anna was beaten by her husband and was chased out of her house that night, she was bruised and blood was oozing all over her face.
”it was around midnight when one day my husband roughed me up severely and threw me outside of the house, I had nowhere to go, so I rushed to the zone leader’s house to report my incident, I was helped that night and in the morning I was told to report my case to the police so that I should be reported to seek medical help.“
“Since I had left my children with the father, I asked the zone leader and other authorities to help me get my children as I was afraid that the husband would also be abusing my children in my absence, they helped me by sending the community policing men known as sungusungu’s to pick the children on my behalf” Anna narrates.
After Anna was thrown out of the house in such a manner well-wishers took her to their house where they kept her and encouraged her to also seek help from Plan International Malawi, Dzaleka GBV office where she was given counseling and financial empowerment through the interventions it is currently implementing as one way of supporting GBV survivors.
Plan International Malawi GBV project facilitator Dalitso Chilembwe says the consequences of such abuse extend far beyond physical pain, thus extending into their mental well-being.
He says The wounds inflicted by this trauma linger, eroding their confidence and self-worth hence the organizations taking initiative to help such women.
“As an organization that safeguards the rights of women in the camp we are currently implementing different projects as part of the interventions we are taking to make sure these women can feed themselves and the children, through the money they get from the livelihood activities happening under our expertise in the camp,” says Chilembwe.
“We also engage men in different trainings to teach them the evils of GBV since we noted that cultural norms that favor men in many life situations fuel GBV in the camp.”
“These trainings act as an eye opener to men as it helps them to change perspective they have towards women and start seeing women as important people in the society, we also do GBV awareness so that the messages of GBV reach a lot of people currently living in the camp and surrounding areas, with this a lot of people are now coming to us to report different forms of abuse they meet in their homes.” Added Chilembwe.
In addition to individual counseling Plan International Malawi also facilitates group therapy sessions that allow survivors to connect with others who have faced similar challenges, fostering a sense of community, understanding, and empowerment. Sharing their stories and supporting one another has been a crucial step in the healing process for survivors of GBV.
