Terre des hommes (Jeremie Henriod)
For several months Mali has been going through serious socio-political disturbances, triggering the exodus of thousands of refugees to Burkina Faso. But for a good many of them, crossing to the ‘country of honest men’ does not mean an end to their sufferings, indeed quite the opposite. Many accounts bear witness to the bad treatment meted out to Mali refugees in the camps, mostly to women and children. To combat this evil, Terre des hommes has organized a series of meetings to promote the awareness of gender-based violence (GBV) of the various people involved and to give them training.
In the news for over a year now, Mali has been the scene of a conflict between the army and various armed groups. However, the effects of the clashes are felt far beyond the country’s borders. For many Malians, exile to Burkina Faso was the sole possibility to escape the horrors of war. But the living conditions in the reception camps are extremely harsh and violent acts against women and children have become a reality.
Working for the past 25 years in Burkina Faso, Tdh decided to react by setting up a programme for refugee protection. For this, meetings were organized in several towns in the country to tackle the subject of gender-based violence. The main aim was to strengthen the knowledge of the members of the child protection network so that they could detect, locate and reintegrate the victims. On this occasion, Tdh also invited social action agents and representatives of the police force with the aim of discussing the means available to develop preventative measures and the fight against GBV.
Held from November 2012 to January 2013 in Bobo-Dioulasso, Ferrério, Goudebou, Sag-Niniogo and Ouagadougou, these meetings showed that the majority of cases sadly occur far too often in silence. Herman Zoungrana, the head of programmes for protection at Tdh, stated that the authorities do not necessarily possess the means to stop the aggression, but he believes that society also contributes by not feeling concerned about this situation of violence.
In one of the least developed countries in the world, where half the population is aged under 15, the collective efforts of all the parties involved in child protection is an essential. To this end, the project ‘Protection of Refugees’ started by Tdh and financed by the High Commission for Refugees (HCR) and by the UNICEF will enable all the actors to fight against gender-based violence in a coordinated way.