Delegates at the Global Gender Summit had two field visits on Sunday, November 24. One group went to Isange one Stop Centre (IOSC), one of the initiatives that were designed to prevent and respond to gender-based violence and child abuse.

Another group went to Gahaya Links, a Rwandan handicraft social enterprise and company dedicated to women’s economic empowerment through enterprise design.

The group that visited IOSC went to Kacyiru Hospital, where the model was first implemented.

Established in 2009 with the support from the First Lady Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, through her Imbuto Foundation, the IOSC aims to ease access to services needed by GBV victims such as medico-legal examinations, psychotherapy and treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, STI/D’s, among others.

Shafiga Murebwayire, the Gender-Based Violence Crimes Division Manager at Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) explained to the delegates how they work.

“We have a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach. In terms of multi-sectoral, it was formed by the fact that there is no institution that can manage effectively GBV and child abuse on its own. There are different sectors that came on board to gather concentrate efforts,” said Murebwayire, who is also the Director of IOSC.

The centre works with the ministries of health, justice, local government, gender and family promotion in addition to the Gender Monitoring Office, National Children Council and Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB).

Murebwayire, further explained that all the institutions have specific roles.

Murebwayire then explained to the delegates, the multi-disciplinary approach.

“At the reception, they do listening and referral. They give the victims information about different services, then they orient them to where they are supposed to go.”

She then explained the stages taken including reception where investigators give judicial support to the victims that includes filing a case.

Another stage involves offering medico-legal services and victims are examined and treated before the psychosocial stage where they are given psychological support.

At the saferoom, the victim is given temporary shelter when necessary, especially for security purposes.

Some victims, depending on their cases, do not follow the order of stages, and most of the times a victim comes from the reception to the treatment room, or to the psychotherapist.

She then says a GBV victim covering all the stages can take a maximum of four hours.

IOSC now work 24 hours a day, in 44 hospitals across the country, and at least medical services for GBV victims in every health centre and their services are accessed for free.

There are over 1,000 trained social workers across the country, to help prevent health consequences of GBV, and maintain evidence.

Since 2009 until 2018, among the cases received by IOSC in Kacyiru, 58.17 per cent are for sexual violence, of which 91.7 per cent are female victims.

73.87 per cent of female the victims are under the age of 18, while 68.8 per cent of male victims are under 18.

Dr Attiat Mustafa Abdelhaleem, the Chairperson of Regional Women Forum International Conference spoke to The New Times about her experience from the visit.

“I was really impressed. It is very comprehensive, they have a very clear mind of what they are doing, and I hope that most of our region and African countries can have the same approach for the protection of women and children.”

However, Abdelhaleem recommended that the link between the investigation and prosecution should be strengthened.

The summit is organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) with other multilateral partners and it takes place every after two years, and this year’s theme is ‘Unpacking constraints to gender equality’.

It is scheduled to take place from November 25 – 27, at the Kigali Convention Centre.

They will among other things discuss scaling up innovative financing; enabling legal, regulatory and institutional environments and how women’s participation and voices can be secured.