Ms Beatrice Gitau, a Clinician at Msambweni County Referral Hospital in Kwale County, says the GBVRC unit at the hospital has strengthened the hospital’s capacity to deal with SGBV cases within the county.
“No survivor goes home without service; previously, once the pharmacy was closed, survivors could not get PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), emergency contraception, or STI prophylactic treatment. However, now that there is a dedicated unit for SGBV survivors, all of these treatments are available even on weekends,” Ms Beatrice explained.
Furthermore, the availability of services at the centre has led to regular visits by survivors seeking various types of treatment provided at the unit. “In the month of May alone, we were able to attend to 11 cases of SGBV and 49 cases of physical and emotional abuse at the facility,” Ms Beatrice said.
She lamented the lack of safe shelters where close relatives of the survivor could be housed while the survivor was admitted to the unit, citing an example of a defilement case involving a daughter and the father, in which the mother was unable to return home or report the case to the police due to societal cultural norms.
“It would be very nice if we had a ‘centre’ where we could keep the mother and baby or father or whomever it is to the survivor for a while before they can get arrangements on where they are going to go back to,” the Clinician added.
CCGD with support from Master Card Foundation (MCF) supported the counties of Kwale, Kajiado and Busia to set up GBVRC units at their referral hospitals.
By Maurice Goga
