| dc.description.abstract | Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), in its various forms, is endemic in communities around the world, cutting across class, race, age, religion and national boundaries. In Uganda, more than half of the population of women and men are not safe at home due to Sexual and Gender Based Violence. Sexual and Gender based violence has a negative impact on production and prosperity, fuels the HIV epidemic (National HIV& AIDS Strategic Plan 2008-2012) and reduces economic development of each nation as reported in the UN Secretary General Report on VAW 2007.
This study was carried out with the general objective of assessing the attitude and perception of couples towards sexual and gender based violence in Namuwongo Parish, Makindye Division, Kampala District. The study specifically assessed the awareness of SGBV among couples, assessed the perception and attitude of SGBV among couples, and also investigated the causes of SGBV among couples in Namuwongo Parish, Makindye Division – Kampala District.
Semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaire methods were mainly used to collect data from fifty (50) households. The descriptive techniques were adopted to analyze data. In doing so tables, charts, and percentages were used.
The survey revealed that majority of respondents were aware of Gender Based Violence, believed Gender Based Violence is Violence against women. In addition to this it emerged that majority had suffered a combined forms of G.B.V such as Been Violently Pushed or grabbed by partner, Been verbally abused by their partner, and/or Been forced to have sex. It was also revealed that majority of Gender Based Violence was attributed to Alcohol/Drug abuse and Job pressure/Stress among others respectively.
It came up with practical actions on how to overcome the above mentioned challenges like Radio Stations, through their corporate social responsibility programs, to dedicate airtime to dialogue about and find solutions for GBV. Intimate partner violence should strictly be treated as a crime. Also community awareness of the harmful consequences of intimate partner violence needs to be increased to reduce the community's tolerance intimate partner violence.
It was concluded that Gender Based violence had link to the political economy of the family. This was attributed to the fact that the men want to be in charge of the economic resources for that family, the husbands may decide to put the profits from the harvest to non-priorities like drinking, leaving the wives to be beggars despite their efforts. This is what sparks off the disagreements and violence in these homes. Whereas it is termed as Gender Based Violence, a lot of emphasis is put on the prevention of violence against women; this does not mean that the husbands are safe. Some of the women also inflict terror on their husband although the statistics indicate the number is still small compared to that of women victims. | en_US |
