Gender based violence is a health issue: Malawi to formulate policy to end GBV

Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSAHC) is strategising how Malawi can appropriate policies to avoid gender based violence and child sexual abuse.

Chairperson of Health and Population Committee of Parliament, Paul Chibingu has said gender based violence issues are affecting people even at rural level, urban level and is a thing that can be supported by everybody.

“Gender based violence issues affect people everywhere and we are saying that this is a good time to formulate policies that are to address such an issue as well as child sexual abuse.

“Gender based violence is a health issue because if it happens it affects the health of the victim. You look at traumatising that is caused resulting to psychological effects of the particular victim,” said Chibingu.

He said that most of the people that are in mental hospitals if careful considerations were put in place to find out why they are there, one would easily see that many of them are the victims of gender based violence.

“The policy is going to cover most of the things that happen in our daily life when it comes to violence like quarrels within families and divorce but paramount to it is the fact children in our prisons who most of them went there because may be the husband divorced the wife without proper reasons and because the children had nowhere to get support, they started misbehaving like stealing and many other criminal acts.

“These are some of the issues that the policy will look into,” he said.

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