UNICEF Tanzania Appoints AY and Faraja K. Nyalandu as Ambassadors to Champion Violence against Children

Hai District Launches One Stop Center to Address Violence against Women and Children

UNICEF Tanzania Appoints AY and Faraja K. Nyalandu as Ambassadors to Champion Violence against Children

To mark the Day of the African Child on 16 June, Hai District, along with government officials, UNICEF and Save the Children, launched a One Stop Center at the Hai District Hospital, which will help to provide support to women and children who have been affected by violence.

“With the One Stop Centre model, Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Children services including medical, psychosocial, security/protection and legal support can now be provided at one location within the health facility premises in a well-coordinated manner,” said Mr. Charles Pallangyo, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

He added that, “this One Stop Center will help to reduce secondary victimization because survivors will access most, if not all the essential services at one location and would not have to recount the horrific incidents to different service providers in various locations, or being sent back and forth due to lack of coordination and capacity among sectors to respond harmoniously.”

The UNICEF Tanzania Representative, Dr. Jama Gulaid, believes that if we work in partnership with the Government and other stakeholders, then together we can find solutions to end violence against children. “Violence against children is everywhere and we cannot keep turning a blind eye to it. All children in Tanzania have a right to live and grow up free from violence. If we all work together, then I have no doubt that we can end violence against children.”

During the event in Hai, UNICEF Tanzania officially appointed bongo flava star Ambwene Yessayah, better known as AY and former Miss Tanzania, Faraja Kotta Nyalandu as National Goodwill Ambassadors for UNICEF Tanzania’s ‘End Violence against Children’ campaign. They both pledged their support for the ‘End Violence against Children’ campaign and expressed excitement about the honor to lend their voices to advocate for child protection.

“Being appointed as a UNICEF Tanzania Ambassador is a huge honor for me and I am committed to lend my voice and use my fame to help end violence against children in Tanzania,” AY said upon accepting the title.

With the appointment of AY and Faraja Kotta Nyalandu as Ambassadors for the ‘End Violence Against Children’ campaign, UNICEF hopes to add a strong voice and increased visibility to the urgent debate about violence against children and demonstrate that there are solutions. To begin their work with UNICEF Tanzania, AY and Faraja visited the Gender and Children’s Desk at the Hai police station to see first-hand the work being done to support children and women affected by violence.

The Violence Against Children Survey, launched by the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children in 2011, highlights the specific vulnerability of children to physical and sexual violence in Tanzania – nearly 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys experience sexual violence and over 70 per cent of both girls and boys experience physical violence before the age of 18 years. However, most survivors never tell anyone about their experience and relatively few cases are reported to the Police.

Progress has been made in improving the situation. UNICEF is supporting the government of Tanzania through the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) to establish and strengthen a ‘child protection systems’ initiative in 13 district councils. In these districts, the health, social welfare, police, education and justice sectors, civil society as well as the informal community structures engage to form a District Child Protection Team and work together to ensure cases of child abuse are dealt with appropriately and also prevented through awareness raising in the communities. The aim of the DSW is to scale up the child protection systems approach to 30 district councils by 2016.