A team of national legislators and senior officials from the national Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare arrived in Western Equatoria State capital Yambio on Tuesday to assess responses by government institutions to the problem of Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Speaking to reporters in Yambio, the team leader Jackline Mathew Gaza said they came to assess Protection Units at police stations, Safe Houses and the effectiveness of the judicial system in relation to cases of GBV in the state. Gaza was selected to lead the team because of her experience working in the GBV program at the ministry.
Gaza explained: “Our visit to the state is short and brief, we would like to know the work of the protection units within each police station in all the ten counties, and we would like to also understand the judicial system of how it handles GBV cases and if there is prosecution going on at state level, how is it handled and we also plan to visit the Safe Home for GBV victims here in the state. And to also understand if we have other Safe Homes in all other ten counties within the state.”
Jackline said that data collection is very important to help the ministry to plan the strategies on how GBV cases can be handled. She also revealed that this data collection process specific to GBV will be implemented across all the ten states and three administrative areas of South Sudan.
Other members of the technical team conducting the assessment from the Transitional National Legislative Assembly include Victoria Benjamin and Joyce Phillip from the national ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare. The assessment will be for two days.