Help-Seeking Pathways and Barriers for ... - EngenderHealth

Local leaders serve as gatekeepers
Local leaders also featured as key gatekeepers and maps often describe a VEO or Ten Cell
Leader as the second stop (after the family) on the path:
It’s the same steps of the local government, that is where we start, because even at the
police nowadays, they [let you] go straight there. A letter should be written for you by
the chairperson, that so and so has been beaten.
Female PFG participant (25+ years old), Iringa
However, these leaders rarely have any GBV training. Hence, the quality of service provided
is dependent on the individual leader. As described in Part III Section A, some leaders take
it upon themselves to provide shelter for a survivor, whereas others provide little assistance
or act as bottlenecks.
Pathways depend on age
After the maps were finalized, the facilitators probed to find out if and how the diagram
might change if the survivor was young or old. Generally the men’s groups did not
emphasize age-based differences, but several patterns emerged from the PFGs with women.
Overall, older women were characterized as more reliant on traditional sources (e.g., elders
and religious leaders) whose support was frequently characterized by an emphasis on
maintaining silence and “enduring.”
But if the mother is 60 years old, she cannot go to the police. She will be afraid because
she will be humiliating herself. Perhaps she has children and grandchildren. Directly she
will use traditional ways of calling elders, people of the same peer group, or use religious
leaders to solve the couple’s problems.
Female PFG participant (25 + years old), Iringa
But for a woman who is 60 years old, she is already old. She does not see any reason to
complain that she has experienced something bad from a husband, because even people
will be surprised as she has lived with her husband for a long time. It is like she is
degrading herself, therefore, she will decide to keep silent because of her age.
Female PFG participant (18-24 years old), Iringa
For a woman who is 17 years old, [she] will follow the whole process—she will go to
parents, to close relatives, to friends, to the police up to the court… but for a woman
who is 60 years old it is rare [for her to seek help through various channels].
Male PFG Participant (18-24years old), Mbeya
Sometimes after a woman gets beaten by husband, she can go to the elders who will tell
her to endure. An elder may advise her, “If you have been beaten just take it easy.” It is
rare to tell her to go and report to the police. They [elders] are most likely to say
endure.
Duty bearer, Dar es Salaam
Help-Seeking Pathways and Barriers for Survivors of GBV in Tanzania March 2013
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