GBV worsens gender-based violence in Zombo

[00:00:03]By sunrise on market day, the roads in Paida Town Council in Zomba District are already busy. Women trek long distances balancing heavy loads on their heads.

[00:00:14]Others strap babies to their backs as they hurry to the market determined to earn something to sustain their families.

[00:00:24]However, a few meters away a different scene unfolds. Groups of men sit idly in the trading centers while others are already drinking alcohol in bars. Others mark the time by playing board games.

[00:00:40]Local leaders say domestic violence stands out often aggravated by poverty and alcohol abuse.

[00:00:47]>> When a man is being asked for the responsibility of a man at home and there's nothing he can deliver he becomes aggressive angry and acting erratically. Quarrels and it ends up in a fight sometimes.

[00:01:01]>> At 58, Maculate Kayeni has eight children. Although she has spent 40 years in marriage, those years tell a story of endurance.

[00:01:13]>> My husband spends his days drinking and refuses to work leaving me to struggle alone with the children and their school fees. When he comes home, he tortures me yet I am also battling an eye problem.

[00:01:29]>> Kayeni used to sell small items by the roadside but her eye condition forced her to stop working.

[00:01:36]>> And if I decide to do farming, I can't because of my eye problem and it is hard for me to provide the children school requirement.

[00:01:44]>> Leaving her marital home is not an option. The land on which the family lives was donated by her mother and she has nowhere else to go. One time her husband beat her to within an inch of her life.

[00:01:59]>> One day, he picked up a slasher and hit me on the nose with it, and I fell down.

[00:02:04]When my eldest son saw what was happening, he pushed his father away, causing him to hit his head on the ground and start bleeding. When he got up, he went to the police. The officers arrested both me and my son. Luckily, I had injuries, and the slasher he had used to beat me was taken as an exhibit, so they later released me. However, my brave son was arrested and had to sell a goat to pay for his bond. I live in fear all the time because I feel that one day this man may kill me.

[00:02:41]>> Today, the couple sleeps in separate huts, but even that does not offer protection. She says whenever her husband returns home drunk, he kicks her door open. In Wapeno Village, also in Pida Town Council, Jennifer Pima is embroiled in a similar battle. In her case, though, the abuse comes from her husband and mother-in-law.

[00:03:02]>> The issue of his mother is too much.

[00:03:06]That kid it can easily make me to lose my life.

[00:03:11]>> At her lowest moment, when the humiliation, insults, and the beatings became unbearable, she contemplated suicide. Pima sought help from elders and religious leaders in vain.

[00:03:23]>> My report to the office of CDO CDO called him.

[00:03:29]Twice, he refused.

[00:03:31]After that, I come back to the church leader.

[00:03:34]Then I report to the church leader. Even the church leader talked to him.

[00:03:39]Up to now, he can he can't change his character.

[00:03:45]>> Local leaders say domestic violence is only reported when there are serious injuries and deaths. Culturally, reporting a husband is viewed as disrespectful and shameful.

[00:03:56]>> The challenge is that in most cases people do not report.

[00:04:01]Probably some people are not informed of the referral pathways, where to refer these cases, but it's real.

[00:04:08]>> In the culture, women are not allowed to say anything. And whatever they say will always be disguised as being big-headed, like they don't have respect for the family heads and all that.

[00:04:23]>> While women form the majority of victims, some men also suffer abuse from their spouses. Unemployment, alcohol dependency, poverty, and cultural silence form a dangerous ecosystem where domestic violence thrives unchallenged.

[00:04:40]>> The problem here