{Ministers and other government officials from Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) visited Isange One Stop Centre situated at Kacyiru Police Hospital, yesterday and rallied other countries to use Rwanda’s example to effectively respond to gender based violence issues, which are alarming in some African states.}
The visiting officials include six from CAR headed by the Director of Cabinet, Antoine Georges Mbaga, and nine from DRC headed by Dr. Mwanza Nangunia Nash, Minister of Health, South-Kivu Province.
At Isange, they were received by the Director of Kacyiru Police Hospital, Commissioner of Police (CP) Dr. Daniel Nyamwasa, who explained to them on the reason behind the establishment of the centre, the services offered and the partnership with other institutions in the fight against GBV.
“We came to Rwanda to witness how you have managed to fight gender based violence. What we have seen, especially here at Isange. It’s amazing and commendable how security institutions in Rwanda work together with other institutions like the ministries of Gender and Family Promotion, Health and Justice to offer services to victims at the same place,” Mbaga said.
“We are currently experiencing challenges related to gender based violence back in CAR and even all responsible institutions work independently. We lack this kind of coordination which leaves perpetuators to move freely and victims receive no justice,” he added.
For Dr. Mwanza, Isange One Stop centre portrays the best approach for institutions to work together to fight against gender based violence.
“In DRC, like in many other countries, gender based violence is still a big issue… victims don’t get justice which is different from Rwanda as we have witnessed, where victims are helped psychologically, given medical care and legal services,” Dr. Mwanza said.
The DRC delegation includes an official from MONUSCO, the peacekeeping force in DRC, while the CAR group includes an official from the AU office there.
In his explanation, Dr. Nyawasa said that besides the services which are offered for free, they also follow-up victims in their reintegration process.
Isange centre at Kacyiru started in 2009 as a pilot project, and has since seen the birth of other 17 centres in different hospitals across the country under the ongoing scale up programme.
The Kacyiru centre has since received over 10, 000 cases, majority related to domestic violence.
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