Why violence against women, children has persisted in Pader

Local leaders in Pader District say several families are breaking up due to effects of gender-based violence (GBV) amid inadequate funding to fight the vice.

In Pader, GBV is mainly caused by disputes over family property, failure to provide for the family, drug and alcohol abuse, and cases of infidelity.

Of the many cases of GBV reported in Puranga Sub-county, however, separation is leading, followed by child neglect, according to Mr Godfrey Amuku Bimeny, the area community development officer (CDO).

“From November last year to date, I have recorded 18 of them (cases of separation), with children being the most affected. I have only singled out children because mothers have also become the perpetrators just like the fathers,” he says, adding that as a result of GBV, many of the children in the area are forced to stay with their relatives.

“At the end of the day, they end up getting shortcuts to their solution: early marriage. After they have produced –because their mind of being in the house was not adequately built – they end up separating. As they separate, they also abandon their children to test the fruit of the GBV that they were subjected to,” the CDO says.

Min Abic (not her real name) got married some 37 years ago.

But then her husband started engaging in excessive consumption of alcohol, which, she says, drastically changed his behaviour.

“One day, he picked a panga (machete) and wanted to cut me but fortunately, I dodged it and he cut the doorframe,” she says.

When clan leaders wrote a letter to police, he was arraigned in court and remanded to prison for some months. But there was no change when my husband returned from prison.

Living in Adongkena West Village, Parwech Parish in Tenam Sub-county, the 56-year-old mother was married at the age of 16.

“After years of staying in the marriage, he again brought in another woman, but because of his violent character, that woman left after producing seven children. But I made up my mind not to quit the relationship so that our innocent children would not suffer,” Min Abic adds.

In a desperate attempt to force her husband to change, the mother of 10 children then started denying him his conjugal right. However, just after 11 months, the unexpected happened.

On March 5, 2023, the man wore his wife’s dress, went and committed suicide by hanging on a tree near the homestead, the deceased’s elder brother, Mr Bosco Ocero, confirms.

This is just one of the many cases of gender-based violence (GBV) crimes being reported in Pader either on a daily or weekly basis, while other cases go unreported.

Out of 17,698 cases of domestic violence (14.693 cases of sexual violence, and 13,202 child-related cases) reported to police in 2022, Pader District was rated as leading in the country with 39 murder cases due to domestic violence, according to the Police Annual Crime Report.

To mitigate the vice, however, this newspaper has established that Caritas Gulu Archdiocese has adopted both preventive and response strategies.

The response strategies focus on offering psychosocial, medical, and legal support services to survivors of violence; building the capacity of community structures to respond and prevent violence, institutional strengthening to improve service delivery and advocacy to improve implementation of laws and policies.

Mr Augustine Odokonyero, the acting programme manager with Caritas Gulu Archdiocese, says they are very proud of their intervention.

The project called “strengthening the social participation of women, children and adolescents/ youth in Uganda” is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through Caritas Germany.

“Through the implementation of the project, we have realised an increase in the number of cases receiving legal redress due to the existence of a sitting Chief Magistrate and two Grade I Magistrates in the district. Their presence and availability within the district has enabled effective and faster access to services for victims seeking justice,” he says.

The three-year project financed to a tune of 484,777 Euros, which commenced on January 1, 2022, has improved knowledge of community members on GBV and child protection.

With the multi-dimensional approach to handling cases, a great smile and joy has filled most survivors of violence who could not access appropriate care and support, Mr Odokonyero adds.

Pader District speaker, Mr Wellborn Ottober Odia, says their council last year passed the GBV Ordinance and forwarded it to the office of the Attorney General for scrutiny and approval.  He is optimistic that once approved, the law would help the district and stakeholders in reducing cases of GBV in the area.

Sadly, police lack of requisite skills and limited financial support to investigate cases coupled with fears by health workers to appear in court to defend evidence have crippled the fight against the vice.

The Pader District gender officer, Ms Lucy Amito, acknowledges that gender-based violence is a big issue in the area, attributing it to poverty and irresponsible consumption of alcohol.

However, she says the district has been working with development partners to mitigate the vice.

Background

According to the World Bank, this issue is not only devastating for survivors of violence and their families, but also entails significant social and economic costs. In some countries, violence against women is estimated to cost countries up to 3.7 percent of their GDP – more than double what most governments spend on education.