towards the end of last year searched for breeding grounds where the ‘virus’ that causes Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Gender- Based Violence (GBV) hide, by carrying out media surveys in 12 regions of Tanzania Mainland and the Isles.
It was revealed that while a lot of advocacy has been carried out before and after the Beijing Conference, it sad that VAWG and GBV continues to sweep through communities in Tabora one of the regions which was surveyed by the media team, as GAUDENSIA MNGUMI, reports………
MORE than 50 years of independence gender-based based violence (GBV) continues to be a challenge to women: they suffer many atrocities like early pregnancies, forced marriages, sexual violence, spouses and children abandonment and beating. Women undergo significant physical and psychological trauma plus socioeconomic hardship which truly worsen their lives and eventually they are buried in the tombs! Sexual abuses, wives beating and spouses and children neglect have adverse consequences for women and their children in Tabora region as some are believed to have lost their lives.
During the GBV and VAWG surveys, the survivors revealed that sometimes deaths occur in rural areas as well as in urban settings as a result of depressions, stress, hypertension and dementia.
During the interviews, Gindu Nholo (60) a resident of Bugoma, Kaliua district, in Tabora region, started the show as she narrates her ordeal.
“I have been in the marriage for 30 years and have 13 children. We worked together to create wealth and as a family we built houses and invest in corn milling machines.
We had a tractor and trailer and we continued to share the burden of grazing a herd of around 800 cows. Today, as you see me, I wander around without any property or assistance and my husband has abandoned the children and my grand children as well,” cried out Gindu.
She complained that every time the husband charged her and her sons Andrea (25) and Shija Siasa (25), in the court the trend she complained that his spouses have remanded them in custody for several occasions.
I bounced with Gindu and his sons in Kaliua District Police station. The three were in custody. It was a pity that I was also remanded in custody for monitoring their case. While in police remand, the family told me that the next day they will be in Tabora to follow-up their rights.
Shija and Andrea for all the years they have not gone to school but were busy tending cattle. They claimed that they have been driven out of the family properties with their mother and they ended up in destitution and as of now they don’t own even a calf despite the fact they spent most of their lives in family cattle rearing.
“ We have failed even to marry for wealth, we have spent much of our time and our mother’s in hands of police, we are languishing in remands and prosecution, traveling from our home town Bugoma in Kaliua to Tabora Municipal to answer charges depending on the offense our father has lodged against us” said Andrea.
Gindu told me that her heart is bleeding from losing everything she had. “Child bearing took a heavy toll on my health and strength. I have a dozen children, and I lost my all my energy in rice, corn and the cattle herding. All these happened when I was young. I am now grown up and abandoned. Poor me! I am caught up between the rock and a hard place.”
GBV makes women poor
Like other survivors of abandonment and gender based violence, Herymina Nyoni has had a very long, bleak and heart-rending story behind her, but briefly sums it up that when a woman is abandoned, everything she owned grows wings even though its been earned jointly, relegating the woman to the level of a pauper with nothing to show for the just-ended relationship.
She is a victim of abandonment and domestic violence. She avers that the problem of abandonment by spouses is very prevalent in Tabora region much more than what is documented or even known.
The general notion in this region is that it does not matter whether the marriage is Christian one that discourages divorce and abandonment. People just don’t care the type of marriage. She says that many cases of abandonment result to diseases such as high blood pressure, madness and sometimes, death.
She confirms that abandonment and divorce is fraught with danger. One such happened to her when her former husband colluded with the head of the college she was studying to get her expelled.
However, since she knew her rights, she was able to follow up matters and the college head was punished for it.
She pity women:” It is so unfortunate that most woman have very little knowledge of the fact that there is legislature in place compelling spouse to provide children’s’ upkeep. Many women suffer from the lack of knowledge the law courts can come in handy in such circumstances,” she said.
Abandonment relegates women to the lowliest level whereby all their attention, strength and resources are focused on survival by hooks and crooks – by means fair and foul – even if it means selling illegal brews or even begging. What this means is that they cannot anything geared towards personal development.
Her troubles aside, she is a professional teacher who has endeavored to earn a bachelor’s degree in social studies from University of Dodoma. She has been using her personal initiative seeking divorces and alimony, if need be she will institute a legal action. Nyoni works in the Community Development in Tabora Municipal, serving the residents of Tambuka Reli.
Abandonment and children
Stella Petro, a mother of two is bitter with the woman who snatched her husband. Stella is a special seats councilor for Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) party. She was married to an army officer in unofficial marriage settings.
In their relationship, they begot two girls.
Her husband abandoned her for another soldier but he took away the children.
“Evidences of hatred for the abandoned women, especially by the second wife were too obvious.
Uncalled for violence was meted down on my daughter who was beaten up to the point of breaking her shoulder. The woman even went further and poked the child’s private parts with a wooden cooking spoon,” said Stella.
Holding back tears, she narrates the ordeal, saying that she has wrestled with matter for eon. The reported it to the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) headquarters but the case has dragged on and on.
She further laments that the child was passed blood and pus through her private parts caused by the sustained injuries.
“The situation was so bad that child was referred to Bugando Referal Hospital in Mwanza. To date, her shoulder is yet to fully recover,” she added.
Violation of the rights of the poor
This woman lamented that the poor suffer more from the exploitation and harassments by the solders living with the community.
She expounds that: “I have taken the matter to the court for litigation but it is very hard for as the case was thrown out,”
Abandoned women by soldiers are denied assistance in the courts of law, with an excuse that such cases can only be heard by the court martial.
“We are told that such cases can only be heard by the court martial and not, the ordinary courts,” she added.
She adds that since this has adversely affected her 12 year old daughter, she has tried to report the matter to the social services but she has been turned down, with everyone skirting around the problem. It is extremely difficult to take the cases to military because they operate in a much closed system.
Assaulted in pregnancy
This category of women, despite being in needs on the account of their health and pregnancies, the find themselves on the receiving end of domestic violence.
Ni Kalunde Mwambala (22), a resident of Misufini village in West was in October last year assaulted when she was eight months pregnant by her husband.
She says was beaten for a flimsy reason of having solicited the help of a neighbour to fetch water for her using her husband’s bicycle. Kalunde, who is a mother of four children who is a victim of early marriages says gave birth to her first child when she was 16 years old.
She bears scars on face and back as an indelible mark of her husband’s brutality. She relocated to her mother’s home for a few days until she gave birth but she was abandoned in the labour ward.
Her husband did not bother to see the child. He paid the Tsh 45,000 that was the hospital fee together with bus fare to her mother’s home and just vanished. That marked the end of the marriage.
“He just showed up to make sure that I had safe deliver since it was his habit to assault and insult me. I gave birth to a baby boy, Adam. He is now ten years old,” she said.
She has reported the matter to the Supreme Council of Muslim (BAKWATA) since theirs was an Islamic marriage but the husband still claims to love her. He is unwilling to divorce her.
“All that time, he has been living with another woman and has barred me from visiting his house. My parents are taking care of me and the child,” she added, trying to hold back tears.
With the help of her parents, Kalunde now runs a small shop. She complains of her deteriorating health – she suffers from diabetes and hypertension. Besides her woes, she is despised by her family and the community around her because the husband claims that it is she that forced the marriage.
Support
The Social Welfare offices and human rights such as Tabora Paralegal that has been offering legal services has been forefront trying to help with legal advice and arbitrations. It is the institution that has made it possible for Stella’s child to the court and CHRAGG.
Tabora Paralegal also comes in between by forcing men to enter into agreements with their abandoned children for upkeep. Further, Millennium village in Uyui district, in Tabora has started SACCOS in partnership with the Community Bank to lend the victims.
Solution
Marriage arbitration laws need to be amended so that men who abandon women on whatever reason to pay alimony and cede to the woman and children the ownership of property such as the house and land.
The government should see the importance of building temporary residences for the victims. Also, village or public land should be available to the victims of domestic violence.
Another recommendation is that there should be legal playing ground for military and civilians. These are a few cases. There are thousands upon thousands of such cases in the country.
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