Sauti Ya Wanawake Pwani conducts community awareness meetings/ forums which are a critical opportunity to educate and sensitize the wider community on women’s rights, and the effects of Violence against Women and Girls and rally for their support. Local leaders, chiefs, and village elders also attend to lend support and give government commitment viewed by all as representing the ‘official power’ to Sauti’s work.
Using the International Campaigns, Sauti has been able to gauge the communities’ appreciation of women’s rights issues. Sauti has organized events around International Women’s Day, and the 16 days of activism on violence Against Women which have brought to the fore issues affecting women such as violence and denial of rights which have awakened the community to the realities of women and thereby coming out in support of these events.
Many men now support Sauti’s work because they are informed about these rights and use this information to mobilize communities to address some of the negative cultural practices and belief systems. For example, every year between November 25 and December 10, Sauti ya Wanawake carries out intensive community campaigns to highlight abuses against women educate the community on women’s rights, and rally for support of Sauti’s work.
Sauti also co-initiated the VAWG situation room alongside other core members of the Mombasa County Gender Technical Working Group which has enabled the sustaining of the referral pathway at the height of rising VAWG incidences during the COVID-19 period to date. The situation room supports survivors of Sexual and Gender Violence across counties through counseling and psychosocial support therapy sessions; links survivors of SGBV to health services for support treatment and access to justice; offers survivors a survivor kitty similar to Wash a bag by Her Majesty QUEEN CAMILA. The office also has a toll-free line 0800720587 which since its establishment in 2020 has received over 1700 SGBV and other related cases.
Gender equality in the law is a fundamental part of achieving gender justice and social change. Over the years Sauti has been advocating for SGBV policies and Bills across the coastal counties and already two of the counties have passed the Bills recently being the county government of Kwale which enacted the Kwale County Sexual and Gender Based Violence Protection Bill 2023. The Act aims to address the growing issues of SGBV and ensure that perpetrators face the full face of the law.
This was the launch of the Kwale Court Users Committee Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Standard operating procedure. Sauti was part of the committee and actively participated in the formation and dissemination of the manual