Gender-based violence is a serious concern in many countries, but in Senegal the rates of violence are particularly high.
A recent study found that 74 percent of schoolgirls in Senegal have been sexually harassed, 22 percent have experienced an attempted rape, and eight percent have been raped. Other studies have shown that the people likely to perpetrate this violence are often known to the victim: a classmate, a boyfriend, a neighbour or a teacher.
Gender-based violence, or GBV, is a problem of substantial proportions. It has deep roots in socio-cultural norms due to rigid gender roles, expectations around masculinity and femininity, and power dynamics within the household.
ChildFund Senegal is working with local communities to help them respond to and prevent GBV. Our community-led approach has four steps:
Forming community groups | Self-diagnosing challenges in the community | Developing action plans, and Carrying out action plans.
This year, six child protection groups were set up with ChildFund`s support in two areas of Mbour district in western Senegal. The groups are composed of community members, who are themselves vulnerable to GBV and include both young people and adults.
Between January and June they met to discuss some of the most pervasive GBV issues in their communities. The groups chose to focus on community mobilisation and advocacy with authorities around rape, early and forced marriage and early pregnancy.
14-year-old Mawa’s story is an example of how these child protection groups are already helping girls and women in their communities.
“One day, around 8pm, while I was learning my lessons in my mother’s room, she called me to introduce me to two young men,” recalls Mawa*. “She told me with a very low voice that I should be very kind with one of the men because he had come to ask me for marriage.
“When I told her that I did not want to get married, I am a student and I want to stay at school she told me that if I did not love him and if I refuse this marriage, she will no longer support me.”
Mawa was left with no choice. To prepare her for marriage, Mawa’s mother withdrew her from school and sent her to the capital, Dakar, to work as a housemaid.
When the youth group in her village learned of Mawa’s situation, they brought the case to the newly formed child protection group. The group then met with Mawa’s mother to negotiate for her return in light of the pre-dowry gift her mother had received.
Mawa had no idea that all of this was going on. “One Sunday, my mother called and asked me to come back to my town to resume my studies,” she says. “It is then that I learned that it was thanks to my village child protection committee that I was able to return home.
Unfortunately Mawa’s story is not uncommon in Senegal. That is why ChildFund will continue to support child protection groups like the one in her community.
*Name changed to protect her identity
“Breastfeeding gives children all the nutrients they needs,” says Saly (pictured below), a ChildFund-trained community health volunteer in Senegal, to the dozen mothers seated around her on a large straw mat in a courtyard`s dappled shade.
Throughout the world, ChildFund-trained volunteers are working to educate families about the benefits, for both mother and child, of breastfeeding.
The women, each with a child at her breast, listen carefully to Saly. One rocks side to side. Another stares at her nursing baby, holding folds of colourful fabric away from a cheek that should be rounder than it is. Another gently jounces her little girl, who has fallen asleep and hangs limp in her arms.
Under a USAID-supported community-based health program led by ChildFund in Senegal, Saly is helping lead a nutrition and recovery workshop in her community. The participants are mothers with children under two whom health volunteers have identified as malnourished.
The workshops are held for 10 days in a row, and include growth monitoring, individual counselling and nutrition education delivered along with songs and dance and a meal.
“We gather the children with their mothers to teach the mothers how to help their children overcome the malnutrition,” says Saly. “When they return home, they will practice what we teach them here.”
Breastfeeding is a key factor in preventing and treating malnutrition, but its benefits go beyond simply providing nutrients. These are just a few:
Strengthens a newborn`s immune system In many of the communities where ChildFund works, it is news to most mothers that breastfeeding within hours after birth confers antibodies that lay the foundation for a newborn`s immune system. “It`s like a vaccine for the child,” Saly says.
Helps mothers to complete childbirth Immediate breastfeeding benefits the mother as well, causing a hormonal shift that spurs her body to finish the process of childbirth and release the placenta.
Builds a bond between mother and child breastfeeding`s benefits are more than merely physiological. Saly explains, “There is a close relationship between the child and the mother during this time, because breastfeeding develops affection between the child and the mother, and it can help the mother to teach the child other behaviours.”
Increases a child`s IQ A mother`s responses to her baby during feeding can dramatically boost brain development. So, it makes sense that breastfeeding is also associated with a three-point increase in children`s IQ.
Exclusive breastfeeding from birth until six months is the single most effective intervention for preventing child deaths.
It`s surprising, then, that only 39% of women worldwide practice exclusive breastfeeding for their children`s first six months.
Why is that the case? The fact is that while breastfeeding may be natural, it`s not always easy.
What does it take? Primarily, mothers need information and support to make breastfeeding happen. Families, health workers and volunteers, and communities at large, also need information so they understand both why breastfeeding is important and what their role is in supporting nursing mothers.
