The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) has completed a countrywide tour training on peace building and the fight against Gender Based Violence (GBV).

The campaign which started on December 22 last year, involved community leaders, women and youth Councils, Army and Police working at both districts and sector levels. It was financed by UNIFEM.

According to NURC vice president Antoine Rutayisire, the major reason they embarked on the fight against GBV was because this has proven to be a major barrier to the reconciliation process.

"All violence is aggression; we fight every category of violence which is based on divisionism. It may sound strange since this not our centre of focus but we are responsible for the prevention of all types of violence,” Rutayisire said Wednesday.

He added that during the training, they took a multi-dimensional approach of involving stakeholders in the fight against the GBV which, they all agreed, has a devastating effect on the development process.

The stakeholders that were involved are the Local Government Ministry, Army, Police and the Women Council and the training focused on how each of the stakeholder can play their role to create a result-oriented synergy.

In total, over 2000 grassroots women and officials were trained in the 4 provinces and Kigali city.

"With the UNIFEM support, The Commission intends to use the trained groups to carry out sensitisation at the district level, starting with the District of Kayonza in the East, Ngororero in the West, Nyarugenge in Kigali city and Gisagara in the South,” Oswald Ruti, the project coordinator revealed.  

Participants in all provinces identified bad cultural practices such as polygamy, the culture of keeping concubines, adultery, unwanted pregnancy, forced marriages of under-age girls, discrimination against the girl-child, dependence on handouts and drug addiction as the major causes of GBV.

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