Zimbabwe: – Zvimba Rural District Council – Zvimba RDC Victim Friendly Units Project

The project was about construction of victim friendly units (VFU) at police stations. The victim friendly units comprised two rooms: one for reporting and the other for counselling. What motivated council to come up with such a project was that though the police stations had the victim friendly units, in most cases those units would be housed at the police stations. Most people were scared to report gender based violence cases since the cases would be reported in the presence of many people who would be in the police station. The project was a good practice since it aimed to maintain privacy, confidentiality and safety of the victims at all times. It was a very innovative project as each case of domestic violence or sexual abuse was treated as a priority.

The project set out to build victim friendly units at all the police stations that were in Zvimba District. There were seven police stations in the district. Council had set out to build two victim friendly units per year. By the time of the project writing, Zvimba and Kutama police stations had the victim friendly units in place. In the 2018 budget, council had set aside $45 000 for the construction of three victim friendly units so as to speed up the process. Motions by councillor Makore to the local authority’s gender committee for the construction of VFU. Committee deliberation of the motion and recommendation to council made resolution for the construction of the VFU. The council’s planning department came up with the plan for the VFU. Procurement committee meetings on tender for the construction and commissioning of the VFU.

There were 10 400 (52%) direct women beneficiaries and 9 600 (48%) making it a total of 20 000 direct beneficiaries. There were neither indirect nor online beneficiaries. The gender specific allocation for the project was $105 000 and $14 400 for gender in mainstream projects. The total budget was $119 400 towards the project. The Zimbabwe Republic Police provided a piece of land for the construction of the VFU. Checking of the police records to if there was any increase on report cases, those sent to the courts and the number of people counselled through the use of these VFUs. The gender committee meetings also saved as a monitoring tool. Surveys and participatory approaches were put in use to monitor and evaluate how the project was performing. Ward meetings were held with the respective councillors taking charge of them. A check on police records proved to be very useful in monitoring the project’s performance.

The major challenge faced was the shortage of resources. Instead of building the VFUs all at once, council managed to construct two at a time so as to manage the resources. The communities assisted as much as they could to make the projects. They availed some resources such as bricks, water, pit sand and at times free labour. Through awareness campaigns, people began to change their attitude towards gender based violence. When some privacy had been put in place at police stations, people could freely report cases of GBV.

Martha Masango from Goho Village Ward 1 said, “I used to hear about GBV over the radio. It never made any sense to me because when I grew up, I was taught to be submissive to my husband all the time. So even though I was experiencing some violence in my marriage, I could not come out in the open. Through the project’s awareness campaigns on GBV, I was then able to report my husband to the police. I received some counselling and we are now living in harmony”. Most men had become supportive as a result of the project as they were also facing some form gender based violence from their spouses. However, they were shy to go to police stations and report since the report was made in public. Now with the introduction of the victim friendly units, reporting was done privately, men were opening up and reporting cases of gender based violence. Men had also changed their attitudes towards women when it came to rights in the community. Men viewed women as equal partners in every aspect.

The project could be sustainable as it was the responsibility of council to provide services to the community. It meant that a budget had to be set aside for projects of such kinds. By showcasing the project at the summit and others taking note of such best practices, it could then be replicated. The media could also take it further by publishing such projects.