The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) in charge of Administration and Personnel, Juvénal Marizamunda, yesterday said that one of the best ways to eliminate Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Child Abuse was through collective partnership with all concerned stakeholders.

Marizamunda made the remarks as he closed the second multi-disciplinary investigative and intervention model course for police officers and medical practitioners which focused on GBV.

The training was held at Police Training School in Gishari.

"Gender Based Violence is a problem faced by many countries globally; statistics by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates that violence causes more deaths and disability among women aged between 15 and 44, than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. 

Even more disturbing, UNICEF found that one in five women was a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime,” Marizamunda said.

The five-day training was attended by 90 people.

"To address this concern, there is need for partnership of all stakeholders, including both public and private entities. It is in this context that Rwanda National Police and the Ministry of Health came up with the training to equip both medical and police personnel with skills to address this scourge with a holistic approach,” said the Deputy Police Chief.

Speaking at the closure of the course, the Director of Community Programs Unit at Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) Catherine Mugeni Musara, hailed Rwanda Rwanda National Police for its continued partnership with the Ministry of Health in fighting Gender Based Violence and providing adequate care to victims of GBV.

"Scaling up of Isange One Stop Center has been of great impact to the people, thanks to RNP that has made it happen,” she said.

Participants recommended that similar training be extended to medical practitioner at the grassroots level.

The concluded trainings were maiden courses conducted under the Isange One Stop Centre scale-up programme that intends to improve their medico-legal reporting, medical and psycho-socio management of victims of gender based violence and getting a wider understanding of the kinds of GBV and their consequences to the victims, their families and the nation in general

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