The Gender and Justice Unit (GJU) on Friday donated dignity kits, which included beds, beddings and assorted toiletries, to Chinsapo and Chitipi Police Units in the outskirts of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.

The donation is one of the components in the ‘Enhancing Women’s Capacity to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence in Lilongwe District Project’, which the unit is implementing with financial support from Trocaire.

The donated materials are aimed at alleviating the challenges the police units face to provide care and support to women and children running away from gender-based violence (GBV) in their homes.

GJU Deputy Director and Projects Manager, Emma Kalea Chigwenembe, said the unit observed that the donation is in response to calls from Community Victim Support Unit (CVSUs) for well-wishers to empower their respective police units with resources needed to support and care for GBV survivors.

“We expect the police units to use these resources purposefully so that women and children who suffer GBV should benefit,” said Chigwenembe.

Senior Group Village Head (SGVH) Mwera of Traditional Authority M’bwatalika expressed delight with the donation, saying it will ease the pressure Chitipi Police Unit used to pile on her to care for the GBV survivors.

Mwera said all along, the police had been sending GBV victims to her because the unit did not have safer places to keep them.

“But now with the donated beds, beddings and toiletries, the police will no longer send them to me. They will be able to accommodate them at the unit as they wait for case mediation or repatriation back to their villages,” she said.

In his remarks, Chinsapo Police Unit VSU Coordinator, Sergeant Edward Alufai, described the donation as timely, stressing that it answers to their long-held prayer.

GJU is a non-governmental organization that utilizes legal empowerment as one of the most powerful catalysts of gender equality and social justice.

It utilizes the law as a tool for gender equality and social justice through; strategic litigation, legal research, mobilization through strategic partnerships, and strengthening access to justice through pro bono legal representation, research, and advocacy.

And building on the lessons from the previous project phase, GJU has been implementing a six-month project in Chitipi at T/A Njerwa, Chigwirizano at T/A Malili, Mtandire and Lumbadzi at T/A Kulamula and T/A Chitukula, which are peri-urban areas in Lilongwe to address the GBV knowledge and response gaps by providing legal information and assistance to all community members.