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

If you advise her to go to the police she will not accept because what she wants is
treatment and nothing more. Sometimes the husband might be the one who threatens
[her] not to go to hospital because he will be arrested.
Service Provider, Iringa
You can go to hospital, but you must have PF3, and when they [providers] realize that
you do not have money, you can wait in the queue eight hours, and when you get tired
of waiting you decide to leave.
Female PFG participant (18-24 years old), Iringa
The hospitals need to listen keenly to the patients who attend because you may go there
and not be capable financially, so they will leave the victim waiting while they treat
those who come and pay money. The victim is left to sit there up to evening and is
eventually told to report the following day. They are following where the money is, and
they have actually caused loss of many lives through this behavior.
Male PFG participant (18-24 years old), Mbeya
Since healthcare providers are required to complete the PF3, they may themselves face
threats from alleged perpetrators. This barrier is especially pertinent in rural areas where
community members are likely to know individual providers. As one medical provider
explains:
First of all…you are supposed to fill in a PF3 showing that she has been injured, and
[then] the government can take legal action against the husband. Let us say he is jailed,
then the doctor will be seen as the one who has caused the problem to the
husband…The husband will say, “We had already reconciled but it is the doctor who
exaggerated the report that I injured my wife severely, otherwise I wouldn’t have been
sent to jail.” So you might find that you create a dangerous environment for yourself.
Therefore, in these things, you have to be careful.
Service Provider, Mbeya
Finally, it should be noted that PF3s cannot be completed by private facilitates. As a result,
private health clinics—which are often the most accessible option for care—are not able to
provide the forensic evidence required to pursue a criminal investigation.
… it was directed [by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare] that any client who
comes to your service, either he or she had a fight with someone or has been injured or
hurt, has been wounded by swords, he or she must be given the PF3, and he or she
must be treated in the government hospitals.
Service provider, Dar es Salaam
According to the PF3 of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Medical Officer is the only
authorized person to complete this form. In principle, the Medical Officer is deployed at the
District Hospital and levels above and not at the dispensaries that are often the nearest
sources of healthcare support for survivors of GBV.
Help-Seeking Pathways and Barriers for Survivors of GBV in Tanzania March 2013
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