NYAGATARE–A campaign aimed at eliminating gender based violence in Nyagatare District has been launched. The drive which is supported by USAID through Intra-Health, kicked off yesterday in Gatunda Sector. Speaking to The New Times, Intra-Health’s Marie Rose Kayiranga said that over 6,640 families have experienced some form of violence in the past few years.“We need everybody’s support to help families live in harmony...these forms of violence are mainly motivated by alcohol abuse,” she said. “We want family members to know their rights and rights of others. Human rights, property rights, justice are some of the main topics of discussions during the campaign,” she said.Nyagatare Vice Mayor in charge of Social Affairs, Charlotte Musabyimana, lamented that domestic violence was responsible for poverty in families.She welcomed the new campaign saying it has started at the height of domestic violence among rural families.“Research has shown that families in conflicts and violence live in perpetual poverty. So with the campaign we expect to kill two birds with one stone...uproot conflicts and poverty simultaneously,” she said.Jane Mbabazi, in charge family affairs in the district, blamed GBV on polygamy, something that was echoed by some women affected by the violence.“We identified more than 600 families with conflict based on property inheritance, polygamy and ignorance of the law. We don’t want the conflicts to escalate into full scale violence,” she said.Beatrice Mukamurenzi, a victim of GBV, told The New Times that her husband refused official marriage so as to marry as many wives as he wished. “We have a small piece of land, yet my husband keeps on producing children with other women. It is inevitable that trouble will surface when it comes to dividing the land,” she noted.Nyagatare was blacklisted by the police as having the highest cases of GBV in the Eastern Province.
