Padare engages media over GBV

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By Maxwell Sibanda With cases of gender-based violence (GBV) continuing to spiral during this Covid-19-induced lockdown, Padare Enkundleni Men’s Forum on Gender, an organisation which seeks to challenge the status quo in gender relations of power and to promote a gender-just society, has engaged journalists with a view to enhance their understanding of the subject […]

By Maxwell Sibanda

With cases of gender-based violence (GBV) continuing to spiral during this Covid-19-induced lockdown, Padare Enkundleni Men’s Forum on Gender, an organisation which seeks to challenge the status quo in gender relations of power and to promote a gender-just society, has engaged journalists with a view to enhance their understanding of the subject and to encourage them to add their voices in the fight against abuse of women and children.

The media engagement initiative, which is part of the organisation’s varied and nationwide efforts aimed at raising awareness and availing preventative measures to GBV, saw 35 journalists from various print and electronic media houses taking part in a two-hour-long Zoom conference facilitated by Padare officials and an external resource person.

Padare programmes officer and workshop coordinator Paul Vingi said the role of the media in information dissemination as well as public education and awareness campaigns cannot be overemphasised and as Padare, they felt compelled to engage journalists through an online media workshop.

“Information saves life and in our fight against gender-based violence, we have noticed that one of the major challenges communities face is lack of information on what this bad practice entails, how and where to get help and the roles that every community member can play to ensure a gender-just society. We also continue to have various myths and beliefs that fuel GBV and journalists have for a long time focused on the fatal and severe cases yet we have many psychological cases of violence,” he said.

“It is for this reason that we engaged journalists from various media houses to enlighten them on our work as Padare, the current statistics and realities around GBV beyond the physical and sexual cases, the importance of humanitarian journalists in fighting GBV and how we can work with them in future programmes and initiatives aimed at stamping out GBV”

Vingi also said Padare, has been rolling out various programmes and campaigns aimed at eradicating GBV. He said the media workshop was a step in the right direction given the role of journalists in documenting cases of GBV at the same time advocating for a gender-just society through their stories, photos and videos.

“Padare has over the years continued to play its part in the fight against gender-based violence, thanks to the support from partners for the various tailor-made programmes we implement across Zimbabwe. However, it is one thing implementing a good programme and another getting your key stakeholders, target communities and beneficiaries to know and appreciate the initiative better,” he said.

“This is where the skill and sway of journalists comes in and through this workshop we were able to give journalists an overview of our programming areas, introduce them to gender-based violence as a discipline for informed reporting, introduce them to the importance of humanitarian reporting to our work as well as discuss the gaps on current media coverage in Zimbabwe. We want detailed reporting and follow-ups to GBV stories and we are generally happy with the turnout as well as the outcomes of this engagement.”

One of the facilitators, journalist and development communication practitioner Takemore Mazuruse, in his humanitarian reporting presentation also spoke on the role of journalists in amplifying the work of humanitarian actors and encouraged them to research more on GBV and engage the organisation beyond the workshop.

“Humanitarian reporting not only defines a crisis, but it also calls for support towards a crisis situation. Journalists must, therefore, embrace a culture of humanitarian reporting so that they raise awareness and funds for humanitarian crises through their stories while providing early emergency warnings and in the case of GBV, monitor the treatment of citizens and report on cases exhaustively.

“The stories journalists carry will help educate and raise awareness which goes a long way in fighting GBV at the same time educating the public on the dangers of abusing women and children.

“Humanitarian journalists are agents of change, they are information multipliers and they are opinion leaders who can set the agenda around an interest area,” Mazuruse.

Valentine Mabhugu, one of the participants to the online workshop, encouraged the organisation to scale up its media engagement programmes so that journalists become partners in the fight against GBV.

“This is a plausible initiative and I want to thank Padare and their partners for organising this engagement. It is very important that as journalists we report from an informed position and this workshop has helped equip us with knowledge about GBV and the roles we can play in fighting this societal ill,” he said

“It is my hope that this is the first of many such engagements to come. A gender-just society is possible, but only if all the partners and stakeholders work together to instil the right values, inform and educate the public about GBV at the same time telling the story of survivors.”