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\u201cI was running from place to place without food or shelter. I was in fear all the time… There was no safe place for me until I got to the safe house,\u201d 22-year-old Selam* recounted to UNFPA.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Selam was in an extremely delicate physical and psychosocial state when she arrived. She had been displaced by conflict that continues to rage in parts of the region, and had repeatedly faced harrowing levels of sexual violence.<\/p>\n
“Life didn’t have any sense for her anymore,\u201d explained a social worker, who handled Selam\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
It is estimated that thousands of women and girls, like Selam, have experienced sexual violence and are in urgent need of supportive services.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see women and girls arriving here so traumatized and depressed due to prolonged suffering, distress and horrendous violence that they cry and cannot eat for days,\u201d added the social worker, whose name is being withheld for security reasons.<\/p>\n
UNFPA is providing medical and psychosocial care to survivors, including a safe space where they can heal. These services are crucial for survivors, who need not only immediate responses but also longer-term solutions, including security and stability.<\/p>\n
Reported sexual violence is just the tip of the iceberg<\/strong><\/p>\n Nearly six months of fighting, forced displacement and dire living conditions have created a high-risk environment for women and girls. Gender-based violence has become a daily reality for many across Tigray.<\/p>\n Reports of sexual and gender-based violence are numerous, and they likely represent just a fraction of the real incidence. Gender-based violence is largely unreported even under normal circumstances \u2013 with only 23 percent of survivors ever seeking assistance, according to a\u00a02016 survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSurvivors fear seeking care due to social stigma, further retaliation or limited access to service providers,\u201d said Tesfu Alemu, a UNFPA programme officer. \u201cSilence is a widespread coping mechanism, but survivors must know about the benefits of seeking care and that help is available.\u201d<\/p>\n This care can make all the difference.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know that there were people who can help or do anything, even that women have rights. I found out when I arrived at the safe house,\u201d said Selam.<\/p>\n \u201cThey really change here,\u201d the social worker said of survivors at the safe house.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never received such a dignified care in my life,\u201d Selam added.<\/p>\n Need to scale up<\/strong><\/p>\n As the conflict drags on, UNFPA estimates that tens of thousands of people may end up requiring medical services to address sexual and gender-based violence in Tigray and the neighbouring conflict-affected regions of Amhara and Afar. Yet\u00a0only 29 per cent of health facilities in Tigray\u00a0are partially available to provide clinical management of rape; none are fully available.<\/p>\n And while an estimated 1 in 5 people affected by conflict experience a\u00a0mental health condition, according to World Health Organization\u00a0researchers, the availability of mental health and psychosocial support is far below the current needs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe long-standing impact of the crisis in Tigray on women and girls, and the disruption of systems and services they normally rely on, underscores the acute needs for comprehensive assistance for sexual and gender-based violence, including mental and psychosocial first aid,\u201d said Diana Garde, UNFPA\u2019s humanitarian coordinator.<\/p>\n UNFPA is currently scaling up its support to safe houses, which not only provide clinical management of rape and psychosocial counselling, but also connect women to other sexual and reproductive health services. UNFPA is also expanding the availability of one-stop centres \u2013 which provide a wide range of care \u2013 and women\u2019s and girls\u2019 safe spaces across the conflict-affected regions. UNFPA is also providing medical supplies and equipment to restore health system services.<\/p>\n UNFPA currently requires at least\u00a0$12 million to provide this life-saving support, of which less than 40 per cent has been funded.<\/p>\n As for Selam, she says she is determined to move forward. She has found hope and purpose, she said, in part because of the inner strength she summoned while at the safe house.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I leave this house, I would like to train and help other women like me in my community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).<\/i><\/p>\n Source<\/a> \u201cI was running from place to place without food or shelter. I was in fear all the time… There was no safe place for me until I got to the safe house,\u201d 22-year-old Selam* recounted to UNFPA. Selam was in an extremely delicate physical and psychosocial state when she arrived. She had been displaced by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1623006017_662_418.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,11525,4696,281,4691,450,279,280,6141,9518,6424,257,9796,254,6040,4790,11318,2148],"class_list":["post-68354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-assist","tag-central-africa","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-funding","tag-genderbased","tag-needed","tag-news","tag-sexual","tag-south-africa-today","tag-survivors","tag-tigray","tag-urgent","tag-violence"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1623006017_662_418.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"