By Fatou Saho
The Network against Gender-Based Violence (NGBV) with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the American Bar Association (ABA), has launched a study report for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
The report, which was reviewed and validated in November, sought to upgrade and simplify the existing referral pathway with infographics on entry points for survivors seeking care, and services for SGBV.
Speaking at the launch, Satang Dumbuya of NGBV, said they operate 10 different one-stop centres in all the regions of the country including managing the shelter for women and children.
“Being service providers, we have faced lots of challenges. We saw a need to come up with a referral pathway although there was an existing referral pathway but working on it to strengthen it. We realized that there is a need to come up with something as urgent and meaning as this, because working with survivors in the past years, having to move them from one service provider to the other, has been tough not only for us but for them and it has made us lose a lot of cases”, Dumbuya lamented.
The study consultant, Fatou Baldeh, said one of the things they found out was that one-stop centres have insufficient GBV-trained personnel, social workers, police and legal aid personnel to effectively operate the centres.
However, Demba Kanteh, a representative from Promoting Rights and Justice (PRJ), under USAID, called on everybody to help in disseminating the referral pathway including the info graphics for the maximum use and benefit of the Gambian people.
“Every survivor of SGBV deserves a sanctuary of support, the advocacy for the protection of SGBV victims and survivors is not just an activity for us, but a duty and part of our shared humanity as a people,“ Kanteh emphasised
