‘Social media abuse increase GBV cases’
Published On December 19, 2016 » 1736 Views» By Davies M.M Chanda » Features
 0 stars
Register to vote!

Gender FocusBy  SYLVIA MWEETWA –
THE Democratic  Governance and  Human  Rights  Advocacy (DEGHA) has attributed the increase in cases of Gender Based  Violence  (GBV) in Zambia  to continued  abuse  of  social  media such as WhatsApp and  Facebook.
DEGHA  president, Gerald  Mutelo  has  further  challenged  the Church and  civil society  to stand up and  assist families whose relationships have been destroyed  due  to use  of misuse of social  media.
Mr  Mutelo said  it was  clear that the use  of  WhatsApp, Facebook and other social  media  has  had  a negative  impact and contributed to increased cases of GBV in the country  and that there was  need  to carry  out  re-counseling  programmes  for married  couples.
He said  that the  issue  of social  media  cannot  be  ignored and require  urgent attention  if the institution of marriage  was to be safeguarded.
Mr Mutelo said  the  technology  was  destroying homes  and that  it was important  to  come  up with a  strategy to assist in addressing  the concerns  of  social  media  which was  taking centre stage.
“It  is  clear that the issue  of  social  media  is  destroying homes  and  families which is  why  the Church  needs  to  carry  out counseling  on married  couples  and  assist them  renew their  vows,“ he said.
Mr Mutelo said traditional media has a big role to play in assisting in the resolution of  marriage  differences.
“It is  a  shame  that the country  is  slowly  losing  its  cultural values  because  people have  stopped  respecting  the old. Society looks at old people as wizard which should not be the case,” he said.
He appealed  to husbands  to  show love to  their wives  to  reduce  on  misunderstandings which were  increasing by  the day.
He called for respect of each other’s rights if marriages were to become stronger.
And  those talked in the streets  of  Kitwe  said  that some  men and women do not allow  their  spouses to touch their  mobile  phones because they have extra marital affairs.
Another trader  said  some  couples  have  destroyed  their  homes because  the  couples  spend time  on social  media  instead  of talking to each other.

*********************************************

Empower vulnerable parents – community leader

By BRIAN HATYOKA –
VULNERABLE parents must be empowered economically so that they stop the habit of marrying off their girls to earn an income, a Livingstone-based community leader Susiku Mwanangombe has said.
Ms Mwanangombe, who is  the coordinator for  Tutalike Life Begins organisation for disadvantaged children and old people in Ngwenya Township, said child marriages would be difficult to stop if vulnerable parents were not empowered economically.
She said in an interview that her findings from most communities revealed that most girls were married off at tender age because their parents wanted to raise money from the dowry to meet their expenses.
“In Ngwenya Township where I live, a 14 year old girl was married off last week and I was told that the parents wanted to raise money for school fees and other expenses.
“Most vulnerable parents are busy marrying of their girls as a way of earning an income,” Ms Mwanangombe said.
She said Zambia needed to stiffen laws on child marriages so that parents who force their children into such marriages were penalised.
And Ms Mwanangombe has urged vulnerable women to seek ways of being
productive to avoid being abused.
She noted that some women were always going to some questionable clergymen almost on daily basis to seek spiritual intervention and ended up being abused by the same alleged spiritual leaders.
“Some churches now operate on 24/7 (throughout the day and night in a week) just like bars and you will find a lot of women there seeking for divine intervention.
“These women have no time to work and they only go for prayers every day. Prayers are okay but there should be time for prayers and work,” she said.
Ms Mwanangombe urged the Church mother bodies in Zambia to scrutinise some pastors and churches.
“You can’t allow any person even those without a certificate to be a pastor. We need proper regulation of churches in our communities.
“Pastors should be checked because most of them are deceiving people,” Ms Mwanangombe said.
She also urged the Government and law enforcement agencies to penalise clergymen who are in a habit of urging people living with HIV/AIDS to stop taking antiretroviral drugs after they have been prayed for.
Ms Mwanangombe said it was criminal to stop infected people from taking medication and hence such clergymen must me caged.
She said about 30  people died recently in her community after some pastors prayed for them and later told the patients to stop taking ARVs claiming that the disease had been taken away from them.
Ms Mwanangombe said such pastors were committing manslaughter and they deserved to be arrested and prosecuted in the courts of law.

**************************************************

Genderlinks seek media gender policies

By CHARITY MOONGA –
GENDERLINKS has called for assistance to be given to  media houses so that they can come up with gender policies that relate to both content and institutional practices.
The organisation has also urged media organisations to network with other media related bodies to view gender as a priority in media operations.
This is contained in a recent report generated by Genderlinks – Zambia which was launched on December 9, 2016 in Lusaka.
Genderlinks further called for capacity building and training for media on how to create gender aware media content in all news topics.
“Peer learning and sharing at Gender and Media Summits can assist the media to learn from the gender mainstreaming efforts undertaken by others in the industry,” the organisation said.
The organisation also revealed that the proportion of women sources in Zambia at 19 per cent is a five percentage point increase from 14 per cent in 2010 and 13 per cent since 2003, this is according to latest information from Genderlinks.
Genderlinks says that the proportion of multiple source stories at 38 per cent has gone up from 36 percent in 2010.
This is however less than the regional proportion of 39 per cent.
Six media houses in Zambia have joined the Gender Links (GL) Centres of Excellence (COE) for Gender in the Media project.
The proportion of women sources in COE’s at 20 per cent is higher than Non COEs at 17 per cent.
Yatsani Radio has the highest proportion of women sources at 27 per cent. Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Radio has the least proportion of women sources at nine per cent.
There are more women in newspaper images at 25 per cent compared to women as news sources at 19 per cent.
Women comprise 36 per cent of management positions a proportion higher than the regional average of 34 per cent.
Crime and violence (23 per cent), Economy (21 per cent) and Sports (18 per cent), are given top priority in the Zambia media. Science and climate change (one per cent) are least reported on. Media
Key findings of the Gender and Media progress study 2015 in Zambia conducted in 14 other SADC countries, brought together all research studies that GL has conducted since 2001 into one research study.
The study covered gender in media content, within media houses and in media education.
It was the most extensive single study of gender in and through the media ever undertaken in Southern Africa. Coinciding with the fourth Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) study in 2015, the study also enables
Southern African countries to benchmark themselves against.
In Zambia, the study covered 12 newsrooms, 6private, four public and two community.
Of these, five were print; five radio and two television media outlets.
Independent media monitors conducted the research monitoring a total of 2080 news items on fourteen staggered days in different weeks of April 2015. This provided a much more reliable sample than the one day of monitoring done in the global study.

Share this post
Tags

About The Author