Dear colleagues, COVAW has been conducting research and documentation since 1995. The main form of documentation has been press reviews whereby we keep track of all cases of violence against women reported in the press especially in the print press. The other research that we have done is one that aimed at highlighting the nature of cases handled by service providers including law enforcement agents, by public administration (children's department) and also by health care providers. This survey was conducted in Nairobi only.
One of our main accomplishments was completing the pilot study on the nature of cases and quality of service that women and girls who are survivors of violence against women are given by service providers. The results will be used as a strong advocacy tool to lobby for further training of the same on women's human rights Some of the obstacles we face in conducting research and documentation are: - Not being able to use the research findings as we had planned. We had planned that as a way of information dissemination, we would conduct trainings for law enforcements agents on the outcomes of the study. The hitch was created because 2002 is an Election Year in Kenya and therefore the government is weary of the fact that some non profits pose as trainers and yet they actually want to incite the law enforcement agents - in this case chiefs and their assistants. - Society considering violence against women as a private problem leads them to underrate cases of violence against women. This was evident by the lack of information on types of violence against women that the service providers attended to since they do not take care to record all details. - Lack of proper monitoring systems means that cases that are handled by chiefs and their assistants are not required to be tracked and therefore they can choose to record or not to record the case. - Resources to enable the research go beyond the pilot stage. In our opinion, research and documentation are most urgently needed in advocacy. Research and documentation is a concrete way of proving the prevalence and indeed magnitude of the problem of violence against women, so that the community and leaders can take it seriously. For COVAW whenever we have press conferences, the questions asked are 'how do we know' that violence against women is high in Kenya. Having the nation wide statistics enables one to build a case for people to take violence against women seriously. For example, COVAW used the findings of various surveys to lobby for the passing of the Domestic Violence (Family protection) Bill which was passed by the Kenyan Parliament on July 18, 2002. We also used the findings of Population Communication Africa on incidence of rape and other forms of sexual abuse among youth for a media campaign on rape. Interpreting violence against women in economic terms means that the government can then be able to appreciate the magnitude of the issue and take serious steps towards its eradication, especially in policy development and reform. Advocacy also towards policy reform for all ministries since violence against women is a cross cutting issue. In addition, research can also be instrumental in the formulating of programs that meet the current needs of the citizens. Research and documentation is also needed in training of state agents (the police force, the chiefs, assistant chiefs and other members of the provincial administration) so that they are kept abreast of the situation and are informed of the options that are available to vulnerable members of the community - be they women, men, the sick, the disabled, children or the elderly. >3. How do you balance the need to document VAW with the interests of >victims whose cases are documented? Documenting cases of violence against women is a process that one has to consider the promises of confidentiality that one gives to clients as they come to the organization. One method that we use is to use the counselor to collect the information from the survivors as opposed to them speaking to the researcher. Another method used is that of training the research assistants who go out to the field with basic counseling skills so that they are also of immediate use to the respondents. The NGO should have a policy as regards media and their clients. In this regard, the media will have to accept certain conditionalities before they are linked to the survivors. This should ideally be in writing. Some of COVAW's best practices are: - COVAW always prepares clients before they encounter the press. This is in terms of creating time for the clients to go through sessions with the Counselor before they commit that they accept to be interviewed by the press. In this regard, when the press informs us that they want to speak with survivors, we never tell them that we can get one 'right away', because even for those who have been interviewed before, we still need to be sure that they are up to it. - Amnesty International - Netherlands in conjunction with Coalition on Violence Against Women - Kenya (COVAW (K)) held a training workshop on reporting and monitoring cases of human rights abuse. The training focused on different kinds of human rights abuse and this was helpful in ensuring that the methods used in collecting data are sensitive. In addition, the training also focused on the need for monitoring to be a continuous process that would then be compiled later for different uses. - A project called Safer Cities (a project of Habitat) conducted a victimization survey in Nairobi. And best practice used was to train their research assistants on basic counseling. COVAW (K) was called upon to conduct the training. This enabled the research assistants to also help the respondents who accepted that they were undergoing abuse and may not be in a position to know where to seek help. In addition to the training being able to counsel the respondents, they were sensitized on the options available to women and where women can turn to - so depending on the dilemma that the respondents found themselves in, they were able to give appropriate referrals. - The same was also done by COVAW for the research assistants of Family Health International in Nairobi, who were conducting a survey on the effects of the use of the female condom in a tea zone area in Kenya called Nandi Hills. - Another best practice is to create a forum where the findings of the research can be disseminated to the respondents so that they can also appreciate the greater picture ie they should be in a position to know how their answers were interpreted and for what purpose. - In addition, research should be published in simple and easy to understand language so that many people can benefit from the findings. Many people, policy makers and civilians alike treat violence against women, as an issue that is someone else's concern. Therefore the dissemination and repackaging of results should be well thought out so that as many people as possible benefit from the findings. Sincerely, Hilda Mawanda Programs Administrator ________________________________________ Coalition on Violence Against Women - Kenya Kamburu Drv, Ngong Rd, Afya Maisonnettes #13 P O Box 10658-00100 Nairobi Kenya Tel: 254-2-574357/8/9 Fax: 254-2-574253 ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
