Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
ZIMBABWE has taken a major step towards combating Gender-Based Violence (GBV), with government and development partners reviewing and enhancing the social work curriculum in tertiary institutions.
The revised curriculum is expected to include a dedicated module on GBV, equipping social work students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to effectively address the issue.
The initiative is being implemented through the “Women at the Centre” programme, a collaborative effort between government, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda, with a view to ensure increased and sustained accessibility and availability of essential services for GBV survivors.
“We believe that there was a gap in social work training, in terms of equipping our students for the gender-based violence curriculum development. So we are here with representatives from various universities to see how best we can input and influence the curricula to curb gender-based violence. We anticipate that after this process, our social workers will be equipped, and they will have the competencies and skills that are necessary to manage gender-based violence in Zimbabwe,” noted Council of Social Workers Zimbabwe registrar, Mr Nesbert Tadzoka.
The curriculum review process involves extensive consultations with stakeholders, including academia, practitioners and GBV experts.
“Now is the right time to come up with a curriculum that targets gender-based violence because it was a missing link in social work. Social work is a human rights based profession where we also look at issues to do with social justice that is social change and empowerment of vulnerable groups to come up with a viable coping mechanism. We work in diverse settings but our students were not equipped to deal with gender based violence issues. But now is the right time where they have preparedness before they exit for field work attachment even after they complete their studies,” noted lecturer, Ms Sunungurayi Charamba.
“Social workers will now be tackling GBV from an informed perspective, we will be aware of the legal issues, frameworks and policies that inform the issue of preventing and addressing GBV. In the past, social workers just knew the basics in gender studies but we will now be focusing specifically on GBV,” said yet another lecturer, Mr Lancelot Nyamaka.
Social work researcher and lecturer Mr Edwine Ndlovu weighed in, “Social work is premised on social justice as one of its values that seeks to ensure that each and every individual groups and communities receive services which are fair and equitable. So when we look at gender-based violence, I think it’s a cancer that has been experienced by a lot of people, regardless of where they are coming from, whether they are at the workplace, at communities, in classes. It is therefore important to ensure social work students are equipped with skills and knowledge on how they should deal with these issues, because they work with communities, they work with individuals after graduating.”
As Zimbabwe prepares to observe the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the curriculum review marks a crucial step in the country’s efforts to curb the scourge, paving way for better equipped social workers to tackle the social ill.
