FIELD SUPERVISION OF COMMUNITY DIALOGUE WITHIN BONALEA AND NKONGSAMBA
Community Dialogue is an interactive communication process of sharing information between persons of common interest with the aim of reaching a particular goal. In this case, the community of Bonalea and Nkongsamba in the last two weeks had community dialogue to discuss the issue of Gender Based Violence in their community.
Gender based violence is one of the predominant problem affecting our communities and the society as a whole, reasons why Reach Out in partnership with COMAGEND as its downstream partner, thanks to funding from Amplify Change implemented this dialogue which comes after community mobilizers have moved door-to-door sensitizing the population on the occurrence and ills of gender based violence in all its forms as well as the need to respect Sexual Reproductive Health Right (SRHR) for all. Equally, the project aims at empowering the people on how to navigate their sexual journey safely and to improve on their access to Comprehensive Sexual Health Care services.
This project is designed to run for a period of 12months and we have been able to complete 6months of the project were we schooled 12 field actors and community counsellors on data collection process and baseline community surveys on the prevalence of GBV spearheaded `by Reach Out. As part of this project, a community dialogues was held to discuss issues on GBV and toxic masculinity where the community hails men who have multiple partners and consume excessive alcohol forgetting to check the health impact on their partners and those around them.
The project targets AGYW, women, young men and men in the Moungo Division specifically in Bonalea and Nkongsamba so as to provide psychosocial support in protecting the mental health of individuals in the community and increase their knowledge on SRHR. In this light we intend to educate our target population on their comprehensive sexual rights to avoid situations of teenage pregnancies, early marriage, Sexually Transmitted Infections and GBV. During this community dialogue, different people from different works of life were brought together to identify causes, recognize its consequences and also propose solution for a way forward
According to the field supervisors of this project, the result from their evaluation of how impactful the project has been she reveals that “GBV is present in all communities but identifying the most prevalent forms and having community members propose lasting solutions to eradicate its occurrence is important especially with the door-to-door sensitization that is currently in process”.
Considering that the project is still on going, we believe that with the help of our partners Amplify Change and Reach Out we will be able to reduce and why not completely change the minds of individuals in relation to women’s right in our communities and ensure that every individual is equipped with knowledge about their Sexual Reproductive Health Right and have access to this health care services
It should be noted that GBV in our communities exist in different types and form; physical, economical, domestic and sexual violence were identified as some of the issues in this communities and community members agreed that irrespective of what the solution is, they need to work together as a team and to be intentional about eradicating this vice in our communities