AWAKENING ADVOCACY I AWAKENING ADVOCACY Equipping Communities and Their Leaders to Influence Policy and Implement Actions to Address Gender Based Violence

PB AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY i AWAKENING ADVOCACY Equipping communities and their leaders to influence policy and implement actions to address Gender Based Violence.

Action for Development (ACFODE) ACFODE is a Ugandan non-governmental women’s organisation focusing on human rights, enhancing women’s participation in politics and decision making and promotion of gender equality in all spheres of society, and good governance and democracy.

© The stories in this book were documented with consent but do not reflect the views of Trócaire. The information and images contained here cannot be used or duplicated or cited without explicit permission from ACFODE.

ii AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY iii CONTENTS

FOREWARD i ADDRESSING GBV iii POLICE PARTNERS 1 TO SERVE AND PROTECT 2 THE DIFFICULT AFTERMATH 3 GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF IT 3 DEEP COLLABORATION 5 LEADERS IN ACTION 7 COMMUNITY SPACES 9 ENGAGING TRADITIONAL STRUCTURES 10 FINANCING THE RESPONSE 11 BUDGET ADVOCACY IMPROVES RESPONSE 13 BE IT PRIEST OR IMAM 15 NEW STRATEGIES 19 DEEP DIALOGUE 20 NEW STRATEGIES 22 CITIZENS IN THE LEAD 23 TRAINED FOR ACTION 25 MARKETING CHANGE 28 YOUTH POWER 29 IT ENDS HERE 31 ADVOCACY IMPACT 33 ACHIEVING REGULATION OF PUBLIC ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION HOURS 34 MEANING BUSINESS 35 RAISING AWARENESS AMONG MEN ON GBV 37 THE SURVIVOR 39 FACING UP, A PERPETRATOR TRANSFORMS 41 SETTING THE STAGE 43 ii AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY iii FOREWARD

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i AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY ii

AWAKENING ADVOCACY Equipping communities and their leaders to influence policy and implement actions to address Gender Based Violence. ADDRESSING GBV

PROJECT TITLE: Advocacy for the Effective Implementation of GBV Policies and Laws in Uganda. UNEVEN GROUND DURATION: 2017- 2019 1. GOAL: Empower women, men, religious leaders and duty Gender-based Violence (GBV) remains one of the most bearers take action at national and local levels for appropriate challenging development problems in Uganda. In addition resourcing and implementation of GBV laws and systems. to leaving physical, mental and social scars on direct survivors, it contributes to mounting gaps in equitable THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE: Advocate for the Effective growth and development nationwide. Implementation of GBV Policies and Laws in Uganda with the long term outcome of Women in target communities living According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics facts free from violence and its associated risks. and figures report for men and women (2017), while more women were engaged in the trade (55%) and TARGET AREAS: Lamwo district manufacturing (51%) sectors compared to men, specific high yielding sectors transportation, construction and agricultural remained male dominated. Moreover, women spent 30 hours a week on unpaid domestic and care work, more than twice the amount of time spent by men (12 hours a week). In addition, representation at Omoro district Local Government in directly elected positions remains less 3% for women compared with over 96% for men.

v AWAKENING ADVOCACY 3 POLICY TO PRACTICE GAPS 2. INVESTING IN THE RIGHT POLICIES . The government of Uganda along its core implementing Translating these laws and policies into practice and partners including Civil Society Organizations has actual beneficial services to women, men, boys and continued to invest in efforts towards effective policy girls in communities however, remains challenging. on prevention and response to GBV. From offering a Through our work in Lamwo and Omoro districts, Action supportive policy framework that incorporates human for Development (ACFODE) has grown to appreciate a rights and affirmative action in its primary laws such as more organic community-led advocacy process towards the Constitution and the Penal Code Act (Cap 120), key closing these gaps.This journey has also entailed a laws such as the Domestic Violence Act (2010) and the transition from initial activities like awareness creation National Policy on Elimination of Gender Based Violence on existing laws and policies to supporting translation in Uganda and its action plan (2016-2021) were developed and popularisation for tangible uptake of policy content, to address the vice. Visible coordination with sectors engaging community duty bearers and leadership has also increased performance and monitoring of GBV structures to establish advocacy groups whose capacities prevention and response. For instance, the UBOS in 2016 are strengthened to identify GBV policy needs, draw out produced National Priority Gender Equality Indicators that action plans and lead implementation and monitoring. includes specific indicators and targets highlighting key ……………………………………………………………………………………… issues such as child marriage, female genital mutilation ……………………………………………….. and violence.

AWAKENING ADVOCACY vi CONFRONTING 4. GENDER BASED VIOLENCE 5. FRONTING MANDATE HOLDERS The following stories demonstrate how we combined The Trocaire supported project being implemented by approaches that create platforms from national level ACFODE to prevent and respond to SGBV through policy policy actors such as members of parliament from and advocacy at community level mapped out key duty target districts of Omoro and Lamwo; rallied district duty bearers and their mandates as first step. The project bearers from the police and services department as well works with the Justice Law and Order Sector ( JLOS) at the as mobilised community advocacy groups to jointly push district including the Criminal Investigations Department, for and lead measureable GBV policy actions. Our change Child and Family Protection Unit, District and Regional marks go from increased agency within women groups, Police Commanders, the Gender Office among others. formulation of bye-laws linked to support and leadership We also drew out a stakeholder map of the district, sub- from our target beneficiaries to national level action county and community leadership including political and calls. This approach has increasingly fused the power technical arms like the Residential District Commissioners, lines between community members and policy actors chairperson’s LCV, councillors, community service and subsequently translated into clarity in actual policy departments and district specific members of parliament. problems such as limited access of police form threes, Through activities like the district accountability forums logistical challenges among response actors, financing conducted in both Omoro and Lamwo districts, key gaps and consolidation of key asks. advocacy priority asks were generated in addition to performance monitoring reports. Our successes on this front were also facilitated by stronger partnerships with key actors such as the Muslim Centre for Justice and Law (MCJL) and Gulu Archdiocese.

vii AWAKENING ADVOCACY

1 AWAKENING ADVOCACY TO SERVE AND PROTECT Omoro being one of the districts with high GBV cases, Peter Mugabi (35 years) is the District Police Commander we welcomed the project as of Omoro district and also one of the champions for GBV the Police. prevention and response. “Omoro being one of the districts with high GBV cases, we welcomed the project He was targeted through trainings on GBV prevention and response with a focus as the Police. In addition to post trauma, on existing laws such as the Domestic Violence Act, the national GBV Guidelines demeaning cultural beliefs and poverty, and the roles of key actors such as the Police where he serves. Cognizant of the dragged effects of the Lord’s Resistance Army conflict, Peter attributes post war limited knowledge of the policies and laws trauma to some of the needs in the community such as increased aggression in on GBV plays a critical role in the poor solving disputes even at household level, growing alcoholism and drug abuse as performance on prevention and response. well as suicidal ideation. Together with his district and sub-county teams, Peter We have since seen improved knowledge is leading community sensitisation to increase protection in communities and among our officers especially in the Child strengthen referrals for psychosocial support in the context of GBV prevention. and Family Protection Unit and the criminal investigations department who have Together with his district and sub-county teams, he is leading community been trained and equipped with skills to sensitisation to increase protection in communities and strengthen referrals for support detection, investigation and case psychosocial support in the context of GBV prevention. In addition, he raised personnel gaps to the Police Head Quarters in Kampala and has since been management. We attribute part of the promised to receive additional Officers to support GBV prevention and response in decline in the GBV cases in the district to the community within the Police Force in Omoro. the project. In 2017, Omoro registered 03 cases of rape and 94 cases of defilement Peter is pleased with the increased professionalism with which the police is and in 2018 10 cases of rape were handling such cases. In order to facilitate this, he is working to ensure that more registered while 188 cases of defilement female Police Officers are availed to sub counties to ease the service seeking were registered. However, this number has environment for female survivors. It is his hope that fellow actors in the fight gone down in 2019 with 09 cases of rape against GBV continue to engage with the Police. In addition, he is determined to sensitise communites on the law and strengthen community vigilance towards its and 100 cases of defilement registered implementation - thus easing Police enforcement. In the area of Child and across the district and we are determined Family Protection, he encourages actors to continue their engagement since this - PETER MUGABI will reach decision makers within the police. AWAKENING ADVOCACY 2 THE DIFFICULT AFTERMATH

I often struggle with the fact that I handle most cases only after they have occurred. However, with the project intervention, this is starting to change. More community members are involving us in mediating and GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF IT preventing cases before they occur. While such are not many, I am glad the trend is Sissy Aceng (Age: 43years) is the Police Constable already starting to change.” for Bobi sub county headquarters. She also serves - CORPORAL MUNDURU YERUSA as the in-charge Child and family protection unit HEAD CHILD & FAMILY PROTECTION UNIT PALOGA POLICE STATION,PALOGA SUB-COUNTY, for Bobi police station. LAMWO DISTRICT

3 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 4 Sissy was selected by her supervisors to attend trainings organized by the Muslim Centre for Justice and Law in conjunction with ACFODE which focused SGBV prevention, response and policy framework. In addition to the training, Sissy also participated in the community sensitization activities.Sissy added that Omoro sub-county registered a decline in GBV cases an average of 5 cases per month to 2 cases per month, a decline she attributes to support from the project. Specific activities she attributes this change to include continuous community policing, community dialogues and the accountability forums re the communities get a chance to interact with the duty bearers have been effective.

In addition, improved coordination between the police with partners such as the Muslim Centre for Justice and Law, Local Council one chairpersons and the Sub County officials – mainly the Community Development Officer and the Sub County chief were vital in sustaining efforts towards GBV prevention and response. She echoed the need for senior police officers who also are the decision makers.

As head of the child family and protection unit, I used to receive many GBV cases. Because of this, I embraced the opportunity for training as critical in equipping me with skills to professionally manage those cases in accordance with existing policies and laws. Sometimes we would get stuck with cases, not knowing what to do with them or who to refer them to.

However, with the training, I appreciated the complexity around addressing GBV and the various actors involved. For instance, psychosocial support actors who we have not been actively engaging have increasingly become key referral points in addressing the effects of the vice. We are seeing more community members open up to report cases which makes follow up easier.” - SISSY ACENG

3 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 4 DEEP COLLABORATION

Margaret Adongkare is the Officer in charge of the CFPU at Lamwo district Central Police Station

The Police is one of the key players in the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). As keepers of law and order, the police plays a key role in enforcing implementation of existing laws and policies related to protection from and response to GBV. Despite, this mandate, and like in many parts of the country, there continued to be a wide gap between the police and Lamwo district residents with regards to the GBV fight.

ACFODE sought to narrow this gap through steadily engaging both the police and key duty bearers in the community to clarify roles, jointly steer action on identified bottlenecks and strengthening coordination and referrals.

Prior to ACFODE’s intervention, Lamwo district was among those with high cases of GBV although these were also associated with baffling silence from community members alongside high impunity that saw majority perpetrators scot-free. Initial interactions between ACFODE and community members revealed low levels of confidence between community members and duty bearers especially the police.

Among other challenges, community members were concerned about the lack of a female Police office in the Child and Family Protection Unit (CFPU) which made it uncomfortable for female victims to report, additional charges to photocopy the police form three which most victims could not afford, inadequate support such as counseling skills in instances where one successfully reported a case as well as limited financial support to the CFPU which pushed officers to require fuel contribution to support follow up by the police.

In collaboration with Gulu Archdiocese, ACFODE mobilized and trained key duty bearers namely; community members including GBV victims/survivors, communities, Police Officers, Health workers, CDOs, Probation Officer, District leaders, LC1s, Religious Leaders, NGOs like American Refugee Council - ARC, Lutheran World Federation – LWF and Gulu Archdiocese. Trainings covered major concepts around GBV, roles and responsibilities of

5 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 6 duty bearers, feedback from monitoring visits by ACFODE and Gulu Archdiocese as This has helped address some of well as steps to strengthen prevention and response within context of the existing the other challenges like connivance legal and policy framework. A major outcome from these trainings was advocacy between health workers and police by duty bearers for a female police officers to be placed at each of the sub-county officers to extort money from CFPU as well as at the district level so as to strengthen confidence among females community members on excuses who are majority victims to report incidents. like photocopying the police form 58 year old Margaret Adongkare is the Officer in charge of the CFPU at Lamwo district three. In addition to providing police Central Police Station. Following the training, Margaret embarked on community- form three at sub-counties, I am one wide sensitization efforts geared towards clarifying the mandate of the police and of those who have copies of GBV their willingness to support the community to address GBV in all its forms policies and laws like the GBV Act 2010, GBV Incidence Report Forms, I remember before joining the CFPU, people feared police GBV National Policy and National because they were not being received well at the station Action Plan booklets which I support to and most police officers were males with whom majority disseminate.” of female victims were not comfortable. In addition to the trainings, Margaret also Moreover, most police officers appeared in pure uniforms with guns for participated in the district accountability community activities which further scared community members away. In forum and also carried out community addition, most community members did not fully understanding existing policing with integrated GBV messages laws on GBV which increased out of court settlements. The training helped as part of strengthening mobilization us to explore ways through which we could reinstate trust with community and sensitization, community dialogues, members so as to help maximize justice opportunities for our communities. counseling and referrals at community level. As she continues championing Through our advocacy, two sub-counties namely; Paloga and Lokung now the GBV prevention and response fight, have female officers as part of their CFPU.” Margaret is observant of the need for continued efforts by the police and other Margaret also noted that a lot of their financial support was from nonprofits and thus not sustainable. However, following the trainings, duty bearers advocated duty bearers to strengthen timeliness in for district financial support and the CFPU was currently receiving a monthly identification, following up and closure of disbursement of 200,000/= to a total of 800,000/= annually. In addition, the unit cases. This will help address the deeply had received a brand new motorcycle to help with following up of cases. rooted community apathy towards the redress system and mechanisms. The multi-sectoral approach used by ACFODE enabled all actors to jointly recognize their part and available resources in the GBV fight. 5 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 6 LEADERS IN ACTION AGAINST GBV Florence Amedo, Community Development Officer – Lokung sub-county, Lamwo district

For Florence Amedo, 34years who serves as Community Development Officer at Lokung sub-county in Lamwo district, the project has helped stakeholders explore new community resources to address SGBV. She noted that years back, only formal actors such as community development officers (CDOs), sub-county chiefs, councillors and designated local leaders were held fully responsible for the fight against SGBV. Moreover, under reporting was widespread among female victims who were uncomfortable reporting to male officers at the CFPU as well handling associated expenses such as fees to photocopy the police form three. Florence notes also that most community members did not know much about the causes of GBV, its consequences and the services available. She also acknowledges that her efforts were limited to mostly waiting for cases at the sub-county with very minimal outreach initiatives to engage communities in prevention efforts alongside response. Other areas she struggled with included GBV record keeping and referrals. Amidst this, Florence’s sub-county received 8 cases per week. Gender planning and budgeting was not taken seriously and small budget allocation to GBV prevention and response as most of the financial support was provided by nonprofits although this support mainly targeted refugee activities in the district.

Through her community outreach activities, Florence counts her impact mainly in counseling couples, holding sensitization meetings and community dialogues which target other actors like the police and local leaders to engage community members of GBV. She also made follow-up and documentation of GBV cases, supported collection of data, reporting and led training sessions for community duty-bearers on advocacy and referral pathways.

7 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 8 At the time of the monitoring and There is a new pressure for documentation visit by ACFODE, Florence noted that she was central in coordination us formal actors to account. of the GBV working group as well as This pressure is from both leading the 2019/2020 planning and formal and informal actors. budgeting process for Lokung sub-county. Following training from ACFODE and As a result of increased awareness participation in other activities like raising activities carried out by different the accountability forum and women stakeholders including activists, caucus meetings, I took a deliberate volunteers, advocacy team, police effort to go beyond the sub county and local leaders, Florence observed headquarters to the communities to increased reporting and follow-up of GBV cases in her sub-county as well as fully understand the main causes of improved interaction between the police GBV and jointly work with community and community duty-bearer structures. structures to address the problem. I She attributes some of the macro impact also acquired knowledge on key laws such as currently having 10 women like the Land Act and the Children’s Act councilors in the sub-county from less as well as the referral pathway which than five before 2018 to the ACFODE and have made my work easier.” Gulu Archdiocese intervention. This is in addition to a general reduction in fighting or beating women in public spaces which - FLORENCE AMEDO was rampant. She acknowledges the multi-sectoral approach of bringing various actors including community leaders and members, development partners, cultural leaders, councilors, police officers, health workers and key sub county and district officials to be a winning approach.

7 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 8 9 AWAKENING ADVOCACY NEW SPACES: NEW OPPORTUNITIES Engaging traditional structures: Perry Jawoko, Our biggest challenge is District Community Development Officer - Omoro district. around exploring ways help communities to break Perry Jawoko – 38years is the District Community Development Officer at Omoro district. the silence on GBV. She learnt about the project during the inception meeting organized by the Muslim Centre for Justice and Law in collaboration with ACFODE at the district. Perry was Community members still report identified as SGBV campaign focal person within the community services department cases only when they have worsened through the office of the chief Administrative officer. She also received training on GBV or after failure to negotiate with and existing policy framework. Following the training and other key project activities perpetrators. Moreover, some of Perry participated in, she was able to lead community dialogues and consultations on those willing to report are still not GBV in the sub-county. fully aware of the referral structures. With support from this project, more Moreover, as DCDO, Perry utilized her position to mobilise community development women and men are able to speak officers within the sub-counties to reflect on GBV and identify specific gaps in their out against the vice. And they are locations. The reflection platforms she led also made room for information sharing reporting to a wider network of and learning among the CDOs. The key actions from these reflective meetings are structured to feed into district coordination units such as the district orphans and skilled workers including parish chiefs, vulnerable children coordination committee – DOVCC. Perry also uses the reflective advocacy group members, SASA! Faith interfaces to receive mentorship from MCJL and ACFODE as well as for her to mentor teams among others.” the CDOs as expected of her position. - PERRY JAWOKO

What worked most according to Perry to support this change was the collaboration with MCJL, ACFODE and Gulu Archdiocese which offered a multi-sectorial effort which involved influential actors like religious leaders. The approach also saw increased participation and involvement of para-social workers, Parish chiefs, Sub county chiefs. These various actors allow for multi-dimensional prevention and responses.

AWAKENING ADVOCACY 10 FINANCING GBV PREVENTION AND RESPONSE

Florence Acen, Assistant Chief Administration Officer (CAO), Omoro District

In Omoro district, ACFODE teams observed that a lot of the SGBV fight interventions selectively targeted particular offices at the district, thus leaving out others that are critical. For instances, most actors targeted the community services department and naturally left out other technical offices in charge of financing and planning.

Based on this background, the MCJL, ACFODE and Trocaire project, sought to go beyond this traditional approach by deliberately reaching financing and planning units at the districts in addition to the community services so as to strengthen collective engagement. These lessons were also as part of expanding the informal actors integration approach which had seen more non-traditional and often informal actors brought on board to complete formal actors in the fight against SGBV.

As a result, Ms. Florence Acen aged 44years who also serves as the Assistant Chief Administration Officer (ACAO) of Omoro District was identified to champion change. She actively attended the feedback meetings where experiences and insights on what was working and gaps for stakeholder intervention shared.

Florence remains grateful for the opportunity to be involved in the fight citing that most partners often stop at the services department thereby missing out the chance to bring planners and finance people on board while these often influence budgeting for all interventions including SGBV redress at the district.

11 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 12 The feedback meetings have continued to give us developments that challenge us. They help to give us updates, trends and statuses of what is happening around SGBV in the communities. For instance, in sub-counties outside Bobi and Koro, awareness of SGBV as criminal and punishable by law is still low. Cases of child marriage are still rampant and representatives also raise calls for capacity strengthening. As planners, such information is critical for us to influence how financing can be allocated based on need – it is essential when we develop plans and budgets.” - FLORENCE ACEN

11 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 12 BUDGET ADVOCACY IMPROVES RESPONSE

Geoffrey Ochana, Probation Officer for Lamwo district

Lamwo district has allocated resources to district’s probation and welfare office in a bid to fight gender based violence. The move which is as a result of advocacy by ACFODE in collaboration with Gulu Archdiocese has seen the unit which had no funding at all being boosted with 4,000,000 for the 2019/2020 financial year.

Geoffrey Ochana aged 58 is the Probation Officer for Lamwo district. He observed that prior to the ACFODE-led intervention to prevent and respond to GBV, financial and logistical challenges affected the community development office under which probation and community development officers drew mandate and support to fight GBV. Issues of demanding for fuel and money by the police and some health workers were very common. Incident reporting, police form three and referral forms were difficult to access for both community members and the Community Development Department at large. This affected the quality of data collected on GBV. During the monitoring and documentation visit, Ochana observed improvement in addressing some of the financial and logistical challenges highlighted above. The Probation and Welfare office had received financial allocation to a total budget of UGX 4,000,000/= for fuel annually. The budget has since then been increased to 1,000,000 per quarter making it at total of 4,000,000 million shilling.

13 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 14 This financial support has been a great boast. Our Commu- nity Development Officers (CDOs) for all sub-counties are now reporting on a quarterly basis; and we have initiated a monthly staff meeting this year where all the CDOs have to attend. The police Central Police Station and Police out-post have sufficient Police Form three supplies which they provide to victims at no cost. As the district we have started entering the GBV incidences in to the District GBV data base and we hope to continue collecting more data for entry.”

Ochana proactively supports GBV data collection and data entry in the district GBV data base, including mentoring and supporting CDOs, police and Health Workers on how to fill incidence reporting forms. Moreover, following the capacity building trainings by ACFODE in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and Gulu Archdiocese, Ochana facilitated the gender budgeting session in the advocacy training held at Royal Hotel in Kitgum in October 2019. He also oversees dissemination of GBV materials such as Domestic Violence Act 2010, GBV National Policy and National Action Plan booklets. As shared by Ochana, the Probation and Welfare office witnessed an improvement in reporting and follow up of GBV cases by Communities. This change is supported by a range of actors including sub-county CDOs, CFPU officers, Health Workers, the Court Officials, top District Officials and the protection working group at the refuges settlement in Palabek sub-county among other actors.

13 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 14 BE IT PRIEST OR IMAM Advancing change through Imams and Catechists: Suzan Ochen, Catechist ParaPaul chapel, Pobel Parish-Lokung sub-county, Lamwo

Suzan Ochen is a 59 old Catechist at ParaPaul chapel. She is also a member of the SASA! Faith group in Lokung sub-county where she resides in Katarac village, Lamwo district. She applauds the project for equipping her with skills and knowledge through trainings and other community level activities like the advocacy groups, community dialogues and monitoring activities.

Suzan believes that the high SGBV in her community accounted for increased street children as households turned into abuse grounds. She is confident her contribution with support from the project accounts for increased conversations among community members about SGBV, as it shows the word is quickly spreading.

Through associations like the Women laity, Holy family among others, Suzan has been able to rally more women to stand up and fight for their rights. This according to her must be matched with a message on responsibility for women and men to strengthen peaceful coexistence and not serve as ground for secondary abuse.

As a Catechist, I already had a platform. However, the trainings and knowledge gained helped me to utilise this platform to integrate SGBV policy and other related issues to masses. I speak to people every Sunday and also include SGBV prevention, response and policy information into my speeches at parties and funerals where I am given a platform to speak. I ensure never to leave the platform without sending out a message on SGBV.” - SUSAN OCEN 15 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 16 17 AWAKENING ADVOCACY Rashid Abdul Paulino (32years) is the Imam of Azzamil Mosque in Bobi sub-county. He resides in Kalamomiya village, Paidwe parish, Bobi sub-county in Omoro district.

He was selected by the MCJL given his position and influence within the community. Following trainings and involvement in other activities like accountability forums, Rashid embarked on using the mosque as a platform to communicate SGBV redress messages.

He also actively participated in community dialogues and jointly worked with other leaders to sensitize the community members about SGBV. The trainings helped start to integrate specific action points and actors into the prevention and response chain which Rashid noted eased case management. This formed his content shared to believers in the mosques. In addition to using the mosque as a platform to condemn SGBV, myself and other believers are more confident now – knowing what to do, with whom and how. The referrals are now easier to make. I also have several materials attained from the MCJL, ACFODE and Trocaire which I refer to in case I have questions and cannot reach project teams immediately.” - RASHID ABDUL PAULINO

AWAKENING ADVOCACY 18 19 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 20 DEEP DIALOGUE Robert Ochan, Community Development Officer – Following the trainings, I Bobi sub-county successfully organized at least one community In Bobi sub-county, the Community Development Officer, Robert Ochan (39 years) dialogue focusing on SGBV was engaged in the SGBV trainings by the project partners. In addition to supporting community sensitization activities, accountability forums and coordinating preparations in each of the five parishes for the sixteen days of activism commemoration activities, Robert traces his impact of Bobi sub county. through the community dialogues. I am passionate about the dialogues According to Robert, community dialogues helped to create a middle engagement because they offer an opportunity to ground for all actors involved to discuss drivers of SGBV. This is because, while interrogate women and men on community sensitisation activities tend to have more experts speaking to masses, deeply held beliefs that normalize dialogues create a platform for both experts, duty bearers and community members to SGBV. discuss and as such, generate shared positions and insights on key issues. For instance, from the dialogues, I He believes that changes in attitudes and perceptions among women and men to established that it was more women appreciate and advance equality of opportunities, resources and power within supporting the status quo than the households and communities will help transform the situation of SGBV. Moreover, men so I used the dialogues offer these, according to Robert are advanced in the community dialogues. Community space to facilitate discussion on equal members are for instance, asked why they do not speak up, or what has been done when they spoke up. More community members were observed to have grown a lot of relations.” apathy from reported cases that are not adequately followed up by key duty bearers. - ROBERT OCHAN Such open discussions result in clarity of expectations, resources and required support to pull a range of actors into action to address SGBV.

19 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 20 21 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 22 NEW STRATEGIES Gladys Alela, Community Development Officer – Koro Sub-County, Omoro district

As the Community Development Officer – Koro Sub-County in Omoro, Gladys Alela (33years) knew about SGBV and was already working with other actors in the community to address the vice. However, Gladys was pleased to receive the training as a refresher.

It helped to remind me of how critical redress is. Moreover, the trainers provided us with most recent statistics beyond our districts. SGBV is changing faces and forms as more women take on household head roles. With economic violence forms becoming more prominent. As a CDO, I realized we need new strategies, specifically related to coordination.”

- GLADYS ALELA

21 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 22 CITIZENS IN THE LEAD

Sam Okello, Community Development Officer for Paloga sub-county, Lamwo district

Citizen led advocacy is core to the intervention of ACFODE alongside partners like Gulu Archdiocese. In the two sub-counties of Paloga and Lokung in Lamwo districts, several activities were undertaken to spread the accountability responsibility across duty bearers as in Margaret Adongkare’s case and on the part of community members. One of the major expected outcomes of the community led advocacy was to strengthen community vigilance and address the challenge of silence around GBV cases. Sam Okello, aged 31 is the Community Development Officer for Paloga sub-county in Lamwo district. He was trained in a range of trainings on GBV geared towards increasing his knowledge and skills to support his community. As such, he has been instrumental in leading community mobilization and sensitization of community members as well as strengthening coordination with actors like local council officials, the police, health workers and community groups like women caucuses. During the ACFODE monitoring and documentation visit, Okello observed that prior to the intervention in 2018, there was limited access to information on GBV laws and policies. This according to him partly accounted for silence among community members due to limited knowledge on what they can do.

“In addition to limited knowledge on GBV policies and laws among community members and even some key duty-bearers, budgeting for GBV activities was not prioritized at the sub county. As CDO who frequently moves through the sub-county, I have observed increased knowledge among community members as they increasingly speak about GBV. Most of the women I speak to are pleased with having a female Police officer at the CFPU and can list at least three actors including women caucuses and community activities to whom they could report a GBV case.”

23 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 24 Moreover according to Okello, the leadership of Paloga sub-county is increasingly more supportive mainly through allocating finances to support GBV prevention and response. In the year 2019/2020 GBV prevention and response has a budget allocation of Uganda shillings 600,000/= which supports fuel, communication, training costs and awareness creation in the communities. Okello attributes this achievement to the intensified community-led advocacy efforts through community members represented by women caucus groups and community activists supported by duty-bearers like sub-county leadership. Moreover, he acknowledges the impact created by concerted efforts from varied actors which was not the case two years back. Some key players include; Gulu Archdiocese, ACFODE representatives, SARDNET, clan and religious leaders, local council representatives, Police Officers and Health Workers, sub county and district officials among others.

A case was reported on TEMBO FM, where a perpetrator committed three (3) offences; attempted rape, attempted defilement and indecent assault.

I took lead with the support from parish chief; we went to Kangole North village and engaged in dialogue meetings with clan and local leaders. The perpetrator admitted was held accountable and was fine with Uganda shillings. 330,000=. The perpetrator confessed and promised not to repeat such acts again.”

- SAM OKELLO

23 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 24 TRAINED FOR ACTION Eveline Akello, Member of women caucus – Labwoch parish, Koro sub-county

Eveline Akello is aged 42years. She resides in Angaba village-Labwoch parish in Koro sub-county, Omoro district where she is a member of the women caucus. She learnt about the need to address gender based violence from the Muslim Center for Justice and law-MCJL and Action for Development-ACFODE.

Specifically, Eveline participated in training organized by the MCJL and ACFODE through which she gained information, knowledge and skills to provide leadership for community sensitizations, couple mediations and offering counselling support to SGBV survivors.

The training covered definition of SGBV, its forms, drivers and how we can prevent and support those who have suf- fered from it. I am using my knowledge from this training and other mentorship activities to conduct community sensitisations, couple mediations and counselling to survivors.” - EVELINE AKELLO

25 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 26 27 AWAKENING ADVOCACY MARKETING CHANGE Kenneth Odyek, 35years was volunteered to lead advocacy by his community leadership in Bardyel village in Patek parish - Bobi sub-county in Omoro district.

Kenneth was engaged in the SGBV training by MCJL and ACFODE. He is also instrumental in supporting mobilization and delivery of community sensitizations towards addressing the vice.

For community level representatives like himself, Kenneth, was most pleased to have translated training and reading materials for reference. He also hopes to innovatively work with MCJL and ACFODE alongside other leaders to increase the number of change agents like himself from four in his parish.

In addition to the training, I participated in the accountability forums where I had a chance to raise my voice on inclusion of SGBV issues into sub-county work plans. Moreover, the trainers provided us with most recent statistics beyond our districts. SGBV is changing faces and forms as more women take on household head roles. With economic violence forms becoming more prominent. As a CDO, I realized we need new strategies, specifically related to coordination.community members are involving us in mediating and preventing cases before they occur. While such are not many, I am glad the trend is already starting to change.”

- KENNETH ODYEK

AWAKENING ADVOCACY 28 YOUTH POWER Patrick Oryem, 23years, Youth Activist, Bobi Sub-county

Patrick Oryem, aged 23 is one of the active youth engaged by the project. He is a resident of Ngudu village, Palenga parish in Bobi sub-county, Omoro district. Patrick received training by the MCJL and ACFODE and he is active in leading awareness creation activities. Patrick has also previously participated in focused group discussions where he and other youth colleagues have shared thoughts on transforming the SGBV situation in their communities.

Following the training, I felt the responsibility to challenge SGBV. I specifically liked content on the laws and policies to address SGBV in the country. For instance, the Domestic Violence Act (2010), knowledge of which gave me a lot of confidence to engage other community members and specifically the youth. As the youth, we encounter SGBV in several ways but often as victims and survivors. I am pleased that this project recognizes our power to influence policy and voices on SGBV prevention and response.” - PATRICK ORYEM

29 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 30 IT ENDS HERE, A GRANDMOTHER TAKES A STAND AGAINST GBV Veronica Obot is aged 70 and a resident of Kalamo Omiya village, Paidwe parish in Bobi sub-county in Omoro.

She was also trained by the MCJL on SGBV after which she joined the advocacy group. She traces her impact mainly in mobilizing and sensitizing women and men in her community to challenge SGBV.

Because of my age, most young couples respect me. So I use that confidence they have in me to guide them on peaceful coexistence. I use stories during counselling to explain cases, consequences and the responsibilities of each person. I make time to visit my couples to monitor how they are progressing. I think that bringing older people on board especially the men will increase outcomes.

As an elderly woman, I have lived several years helplessly witnessing SGBV. Some of the perpetrators and survivors are my own children and grandchildren, especially the girls. Even when most people thought I could not do much at 70 years, I believed it is one way I would support transformation for the younger generation. The things that happened to us and to our children and their children must not be left to extend to another generation. SGBV must stop with us.”

- VERONICA OBOT

31 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 32 33 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 34 ACHIEVING REGULATION OF PUBLIC ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION HOURS

Night Adyee, Local Council one chairperson: Paloga Central Village, Paloga sub-county, Lamwo district

The sub-county hosts one of the biggest trading centres in the sub-county and also doubles as a renowned SGBV hub, making it a strategic target for the project. With support from Trocaire, ACFODE worked with Gulu Archdiocese alongside other community leaders such as Adyee to deliver the project.

ACFODE trained me on what SGBV is, its forms, current trends, prevention and response laws and policies and how I can get involved as a local council one chairperson. I serve as a first contact point whenever SGBV cases occur and I was frustrated at how multiple the cases I handle were. I needed to focus on prevention started to reflect on which drivers were most prominent in my sub-county. So, I worked with the Police to explore how we could regulate alcohol consumption. We engaged bar owners and consumers to agree on feasible hours that allow community members to equally engage in productive activities other than intoxication throughout the day. Young and older men often started to drink in the early morning hours of the day.

Today, I am happy that bars in this village open only after 10AM and they do not operate all night either. More men, young people and some women who started to drink at as early as 7AM have started yielding to the pressure to engage in productive work at the trading centre other than alcohol consumption. More duty bearers like religious leaders have also been instrumental in sustaining the message against alcoholism.”

- NIGHT ADYEE

33 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 34 MEANING BUSINESS Pushing for the GBV Ordinance in Omoro district

In Omoro district, the project identified key change makers to transform policy around SGBV at district, sub-county and community levels. This would be through intensifying voices on key policy gaps to ensure passing of ordinances, bye-laws and community declarations against the vice respectively. The project worked with the community services department in this pursuit.

A community-led approach built through the community activists generated the need for supportive policy frameworks at that level. Salima Adoch, a 37year old member of Wigweng village, Patek Parish, Bobi sub-county, Omoro district led this action. Salima also doubles as the local council five female councillor for Bobi sub-county. She mobilised community members to appreciate the need through addressing community dialogues and accountability forums. These efforts were linked to district processes. Perry Jawoko (38years) is the District Community Development Officer at Omoro district moved to push for a GBV ordinance at the district geared towards addressing GBV and child protection through addressing issues like cultural practices that compromise the safety of women and girls. It built on the community activism led by Salima and other members.

The ordinance was presented to the district council for its first reading in on Friday 6th of December 2019. Extending the project to additional sub-counties to expand the impact so far has been attained in Omoro to include others like Bobi and Koro sub counties.

Perry and Salima were hopeful that these efforts would serve to translate national policy around SGBV into tangible action and behavioural change at community level. They cited plans to engage community members into generating declarations against or for particular causes in their villages including issues like alcoholism, early child marriages and sexual and gender-based violence for a violence free community.

35 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 36 MEN TALK Raising awareness among men on GBV Samuel Oyoo, Karatac village Lokung sub county, Lamwo

Samuel Oyoo is aged 25 and a resident of Karatac village In Pobel parish –Lokung sub- county, Lamwo district. He is a change ambassador trained by the project and continues to utilise his personal experience to interrogate normalized practices that perpetrate and condone SGBV. He targets men with hope of helping them empathetically question their beliefs and behaviour as well as understand existing laws and policies around SGBV.

It is through the training on SGBV that I came to a realization that several things myself and fellow men in our households amount to SGBV. Through our talks in male groups, it is normal to think of ourselves as superior to women. At harvest time for instance, I did not have to seek my wife’s permission to sell her produce. Moreover, I would receive encouragement from my fellow male group members to constrain my wife’s movements and control her finances as we, men, head the family. However, in the training and through the advocacy monitoring group I joined, I learnt different. I have moved from guilt, shame, self-blame and denial to accepting my wrongs. Recognizing that my wife is an equal human being with rights to respect and dignity was a first step in guiding me to apologise and embark on a journey of transformation for myself and other men in my community.” - SAMUEL OYOO

37 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 38 Samuel currently conducts community sensitizations targeting men and boys where he discusses the Domestic Violence Act and other policies on protection against SGBV. He thinks that knowing about the Act was one of the greatest achievements he had at personal level, noting that most men did not actually know that SGBV was criminal.

He counts his achievements through improved coordination between the advocacy members, the community activists, religious leaders, office of the CDOs and the police. According to him, this has improved the quality of referrals for survivors as it eases follow-up on cases. Other success drivers for Samuel include the joint monthly meetings held by Gulu Archdiocese, training from ACFODE and the courage to share his personal story which inspires fellow men to change practices they have esteemed over generations while insensitively abusing women and girls.

37 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 38 THE SURVIVOR A First hand testimony inspires change Cinderella Akurukwe, Marakac village, Pawoja Parish - Lamwo

Cinderella Akurukwe – aged 25 is a resident of Marakac village, Pawoja Parish in Paloga sub county, Lamwo District. She had been severally battered by her husband in her earlier marriage years. At the time, she was emotionally affected by the abuse following several years of silence. Later she broke the silence by sharing with the church from where she sought and received counselling for her and husband. Cinderella heard of the project from religious leaders at Padibe parish where she attends church. Her sub-county was targeted through Gulu Archdiocese and ACFODE given its bad repute with SGBV cases. Cinderella volunteered to serve as an advocacy member hoping to use her past experience to influence change for other couples in the community. She was trained alongside other advocacy members on the basics of SGBV including the policy and legal framework, causes, implications and redress.

Following the training, she is engaged in monitoring of SGBV cases in the villages, conduct focus group discussions on the vice to infiltrate small groups of people with the messages, creating awareness among the community members and counselling those who are affected. For Cinderella, it was a big concern that most survivors maintained silence. She sought to use platforms such as through the project to let community members know that SGBV has a range of effects. Some, she called scars that cannot easily be seen – in reference to the emotional effects of the vice.

39 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 40 Cases of GBV are still rampant in my community. Unfortunately, like myself several years ago, many women and men opt for silence. More women and men also presume SGBV as a normal practice, so no one feels the obligation to act or speak - not perpetrators, survivors or by-standers. Through the small discussions and awareness activities we lead as advocacy group members, I see more community members coming up to speak against the vice. It helps further when religious leaders stand with us to condemn SGBV as masses believe in them. - CINDERELLA AKURUKWE

39 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 40 FACING UP, A PERPETRATOR TRANSFORMS Peter Mutesa, Alokoroni Village-Paloga Parish, Lamwo district.

Peter Mutesa is a 48year old resident of Alokoroni Village in Paloga Parish, Paloga sub county-Lamwo district. He also doubles as a role model man having transformed from perpetrating GBV through beating his wife to promoting prevention and response towards violence free households and communities. This was also the main reason he was selected to be involved into the project to be able to support transformation of other perpetrators as well as prevent potential perpetrators from committing SGBV crimes. When Peter changed, he did not initially act to utilise his experience to influence others. He kept the benefits to himself and his family. However, with the project, he was revi- talised into reflecting on how best he could use his story, position and power. For him, it meant positively thinking through the moments of guilt from his experience, letting external members of the community to know and share in his story. This, he felt was very challenging. Thus trainings and other activities from the project helped to prepare and groom him into a change maker.

I lived the shame and guilt of being a perpetrator for many years. I did not know how to face my family, especially my wife and children. I had seen them grow very devastated by my actions, yet I did not show any remorse. When I took the stand, I apologised and promised to change, however, I did not think they would forgive me. I was emotionally disturbed by this for some time. I do not want any other man or woman to experience this. So I decided to use my change experience and lessons from the project to

41 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 42 appeal transformation among other men with the same experiences, I tell them that a violence free household is possible with their efforts.”

- PETER MUTESA

Peter also counts his impact to include engaging cultural leaders in his village to include SGBV on their meeting agenda which they had started to do. He uses his platform as a SASA! Faith group member to monitor community level performance by other leaders and jointly provide support through monitoring and conducting/ participating in community dialogues. For Peter, the struggle has just started. He hopes for a community where more men are constructively reflecting on how to utilise their power to promote peaceful coexistence within their households. He thinks that this can be achieved through additional efforts to reach men like him, an approach the project is already using.

41 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 42 DRAMA CHAMPIONS Patrick Olworo is a 23 year old resident of Ododo village, Olebi parish in Lokung sub county, Lamwo district.

He learnt of the project from a church association named community activists in his village. Growing, Patrick had witnessed forms of GBV such as spouse battering of his mother as well as in the neighbourhood. He was eager to join the activist group as a way through which he would support change.

He was lucky to benefit from training on GBV policy, laws and prevention strategies by Gulu Archdiocese supported by ACFODE and Trocaire. His group - Pikwo Youth group utilizes community theatre to champion behavioural change and mind-set shifts among community members. They deliver music and drama performances at parties and other functions with content focused SGBV prevention and response.

The group is starting to integrate social entrepreneurship into their SGBV work for sustainability. Patrick is pleased that more community members are getting aware of their group and key messages. They are being invited to perform at weddings and also at community meetings.

Patrick believes community theatre is one way through which the messages against SGBV will traverse far ends of targeted communities and beyond.

43 AWAKENING ADVOCACY AWAKENING ADVOCACY 44

ACTION FOR DEVELOPMENT (ACFODE) Plot 623/624, Bukoto P. O. Box 16729, Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 414 531 812 Email: [email protected] | [email protected]

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