We’re empowering women-YWCA chief

OUR Economic empowerment programmes will educate victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV) on how to earn a living in cases where the abusive breadwinner is jailed, says Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Executive Director, Patricia Ndhlovu.

Ms Ndhlovu said it was saddening that some women were withdrawing police cases on GBV because the perpetrators were the only breadwinners.

She was speaking in Lusaka during International Women’s day celebrations at (YWCA) Centre after the Lusaka South Multi Facility Economic Zone (LSMFEZ) handed over a borehole to the organisation.

“We are happy that people are no longer hiding these cases, we are coming from a society where people never reported GBV.

But due to the efforts of YWCA and other supporting organisations, the culture of silence is slowly phasing out.

Our economic empowerment programs will educate women on how to earn a living so that in cases when the abusive breadwinner is jailed, we do not want to see a situation where the case is withdrawn because the woman cannot go on,” said Ms Ndhlovu.

Speaking earlier, LSMFEZ Managing Director Mukela Lubasi said her organisation was drilling a borehole at YWCA to help reduce water shortages for victims of GBV that were housed at the centre.