Implementing Multiple Gender Strategies to Improve HIV and ... - ICRW

POST RAPE CARE
LEAD ORGANIZATIONS:
COUNTRY:
HIV PROGRAM AREA:
Liverpool VCT, Care & Treatment (LVCT)
Kenya
Care and Support
OVERVIEW:
Post Rape Care seeks to address gaps in comprehensive post-rape care service delivery by offering
an array of post-rape services in government health facilities and improving community awareness
about sexual violence, women’s rights and available services. In addition to providing free post-rape
services to women, the program seeks to change norms condoning sexual violence through trainings
for clinic staff on sexual violence, women’s rights and trauma counseling, and trainings for police on
sexual violence and how to link women to legal and other support services. The program also
includes a training curriculum on gender dynamics, gender norms, and power relations between men
and women. Finally, LVCT provides technical assistance to local government bodies working on
health and HIV to mainstream gender. Since the project started in 2004, it has scaled up from three
sites to twelve districts. Lessons learned include the value of early counseling for post-rape clients
and the need to develop guidelines to work with survivors of sexual violence. Also, because sexual
violence is highly stigmatized, many survivors do not report incidents of violence.
BACKGROUND
HIV & AIDS
Program Goals
Through the Post Rape Care program, LVCT seeks to address gaps in
comprehensive post-rape care service delivery by making services
available in government health facilities.
Gender Strategies
Addressed
Reducing violence and coercion
Addressing male norms and behaviors
Increasing women’s legal protection
Increasing women’s access to income and productive resources
Other: gender mainstreaming
Description of
Intervention
Partnered with the Government of Kenya, the Post Rape Care program
addresses gender-based violence by providing free post-rape care
services at government health facilities. Services include clinical evaluation
and documentation (including forensic examination, evidence collection,
specimen analysis, and legal documentation); clinical management
(including management of injuries and pregnancy, testing and treatment for
sexually transmitted infections [STIs], and HIV prevention using postexposure
prophylaxis [PEP]); and counseling services (including crisis
prevention and trauma counseling for survivor and family, HIV counseling
and testing, HIV PEP adherence counseling, and preparation of survivors
for the criminal justice system).
The program also sensitizes key stakeholders, including community
members, religious leaders, school teachers, the police, and community
health workers, on issues of rape and sexual violence. For example, a
three-day training curriculum educates health care workers and trauma
counselors on gender dynamics, gender norms, and power relations
between men and women. The training curriculum aims to improve service
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