The Anglican Church of Burundi has trained 126 people to support
victims of gender-based violence.
The Church is also establishing a safe
house to provide counselling and other forms of specialist help.
At an
event to mark the 16 Days of Activism against gender based violence –
which came to an end on Saturday (10 December), the Archbishop of
Burundi, Martin Nyaboho, said that the Church is “more than ever
committed to end violence in all its forms.”
The event was attended by church figures and representatives of the
government and other partners. At it, Archbishop Martin said that
throughout the province’s 71-year history, it had always acted to fight
against human indignity, including gender based violence.
“We are very happy and thank God for this new step of launching a
safe house to help victims of gender based violence”, Archbishop Martin
said.
The Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi joined the Government
and other partners on Friday 25th November 2016 to launch a series of
activities that will run until 11th December 2016.
Present at the
ceremonies were Bishops of different Dioceses; representatives of the
National Council of Churches; Christian Aid, Norwegian Church Aid and
other partners; Civil Society organizations concerned about Gender Based
Violence and some victims of GBV.
The Anglican Church of Burundi has a dedicated co-ordinator of
gender-based violence issues, the Revd Jeanne Françoise Ndimubakunzi.
She said that the increased willingness of church and community leaders
to work together to eradicate violence could lead to a reduction of
gender-based violence in the country. “I am very encouraged by the
Burundian Government’s new law against violence that came into effect
two months ago,” she said.
“That law gives us the strength we need to
move forward in our advocacy for victims and also to see the eradication
of impunity for perpetrators of GBV.”
As in other parts of the world, the majority of victims of
gender-based violence are women; but men are not immune.
Across the
country, some 20 per cent of gender-based violence cases involve male
victims.