Wife of the President of Zanzibar, Msarifu and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Zanzibar Maisha Bora Foundation (ZMBF) Mrs. Mama Mariam Mwinyi has met the leadership of the Ford Foundation led by Mrs. Monica Aleman, Director of International Programs at the Ford Foundation offices in New York City, USA.
In that conversation, Mrs. Mama Mariam explained the great challenges that exist in the issues of sexual abuse and violence, including the Government’s efforts to establish a Gender Policy (2016) and remove bail for the accused until the verdict is issued, but still cases of sexual abuse and violence are reported and according to the Statistics Head of Zanzibar 1,954 cases and 83.7 percent of them are children and 12 percent are women.
Mama Mariam has explained that in efforts to help the Government completely end this problem, the ZMBF institution has done great things, including collaborating with the Ministry of Social Development, Gender, Elderly and Children to prepare a digital system to collect data and statistics on incidents of cruelty and humiliation .
Another is to launch the Commonwealth’s International Campaign Says Now for sexual and domestic violence, to provide education to the gender committees in Shehia, to conduct dialogues with community members.
The last is to prepare a safe and special shelter for the victims of sexual abuse and violence, especially women and children, to provide them with mental health services, legal aid and professional skills training so that they can have sources of income when they return to society.
