Fighting violence that is directed against a person on the basis of gender

Raising awareness within Church and community

                    

Activities

• Breaking the silence on sexual violence
• Listening to and supporting survivors of sexual violence
• Creating a safe environment for victims of gender related violence
• Supporting families in difficulty
• Fighting stigma and discrimination
• Changing attitudes and behaviours that encourage sexual violence
• Advocating for the law to be enforced and ensuring that perpetrators are punished.

The full extent of gender and sexually related violence is difficult to estimate as many will never tell their story to anyone. Many victims do not speak because of fear of reprisals. In Burundi gender and sexually related violence takes many forms. Among the most common are domestic violence, violence based on sorcial norms and sexual violence.

The Church is committed to supporting initiatives by the Government to fight against gender based violence.

It is concerned to raise awareness within the Church and in the community of the issues and provide training where it is needed.

It is developing programmes that support women and girls and challenging all forms of discrimination against them.

It is seeking to encourage appropriate responses to victims and perpetrators.

Campaigning against GBV