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Tafadzwa Ndlovu Herald Reporter
A local non-governmental organisation says it is establishing homes to shelter survivors of domestic violence as part of the broader national gender-based violence prevention and response plan. World Education Incorporated Bantwana (WEIB) country director Mrs Patience Ndlovu told the Herald recently that her organisation was already running 12 homes in the country in support of the national call to build protection shelters.

“We are implementing a pilot project with the department of child welfare and probation services and the idea is that we establish low cost safe spaces for women and children who have been abused,” she said.

“For a safe home, we can identify a care giver in a community or a person can be a selected volunteer where the home is vetted to see if they have enough space. A police vetting is also done on them to check if they do not have a history of child abuse or violation of human rights.

“Some children would need a safe space for instance during a court process whilst they are waiting for a trial and we are there to provide that. What we are basically doing is a low cost approach since there are no resources so we were looking for people that already have accommodation and have had a passion for children,’’ she said.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs Gender and Community Development has since launched a GBV national strategy for 2012-2015 centred on the 4Ps -prevention, protection, programmes and participation but there was a huge gap in the provision of safe shelters and protection of victims of GBV.