A NON-GOVERNMENTAL organisation fighting for the rights of male victims of gender-based violence has urged police officers to be accommodative and not ridicule male victims amid reports that most cases were going unreported.
BY KUDZAI MUCHENJEKWA
Zimbabwe Aids Prevention Support Organisation (Zapso) programmes officer for Muzarabani district, Gondayi Dekese, told NewsDay last week that most male victims chose to suffer in silence as they were often ill-treated when they report such cases to police.
“The report we get is that officers in most police stations where cases of GBV are usually reported are less friendly to male survivors, so men find it difficult to open up about GBV for fear of getting laughed at by the community hence we encourage police to be more friendly to male victims,” Dekese said.
He encouraged men to be more active and involved in programmes that have to do with the community as this will unite communities and strengthen them.
“We have discovered that men lack health-seeking behaviour. There is low involvement of men in programmes to do with GBV, not only that, but also in community health programmes. We want all men to be active and take part in these programmes,” said Dekese.
Another NGO known as Kurainashe also said all victims should be treated the same regardless of gender.
“We have discovered that men are not coming up in terms of reporting GBV. We are creating equal treatment as access to opportunities, if a man is facing GBV, he needs to come and report so that we treat the case like any other,” Kurainashe’s programmes officer Ngoni Munoti, said.
