Let’s stop the shadow pandemic

Alongside health impacts, the global Covid-19 pandemic has brought a loss of liberties.

Restrictions in movement have affected people’s jobs and livelihoods. Despite the many hardships being faced, freedom from violence cannot, under any circumstance, be surrendered — the right to live free from violence is a basic human right.

Yet the most vulnerable members of society including children, women, persons with disabilities, the elderly — are suffering during isolation.

Many countries are reporting a surge in cases of domestic and sexual violence, as well as child abuse. Kenya is following this trend: a third of crimes reported since Covid-19 arrived were related to sexual violence. To stop this ‘shadow’ pandemic’, we must act now.

The United Nations and the Kenya government launched a flash appeal this month, seeking $267 million (Ksh28 billion) to respond to the most immediate needs of over 10 million people during the pandemic.

Of this, $4.2 million is needed to provide life-saving medical treatment, psychosocial support and legal representation in relation to violence against children and GBV.

But how can a virus spread violence? Financial hardship due to restriction of movement and curfew affects livelihoods, especially for those working in the informal sector.

COUNSELLING

Confinement at home, under heightened levels of stress, uncertainty, and fear, can produce stressful environments that precipitate violence.

At this time, children are at heightened risk of all forms of violence, including violent discipline by family members and emotional abuse.

Families in highly pressured situations may also resort to child labour, transactional sex, FGM and child marriage. Removing children from a protective environment such as school, exacerbates these risks.

What is the United Nations in Kenya doing about it? The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has collaborated with the Kenya Red Cross Society to sustain clinical management of sexual violence supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) in all humanitarian hubs in the country.

Unicef is working with Kenya’s Department of Children’s Services to continue to provide case management services for girl and boy survivors of violence against children.

UN Women, UNFPA and UNICEF are working closely with Kenya’s national child and GBV hotlines to increase psychosocial support through telephone and chat counselling services.

Unicef is calling for child protection workers to be included as an essential service, so they can respond to VAC and GBV cases after the curfew, and for the reactivation of the Child Protection Volunteers scheme to reach out to vulnerable families for prevention, early identification and referral of cases of violence

We call on the international community to take note of the surge in violence against women and children and support the mobilisation of resources, on government to strengthen protection mechanisms, and on citizens to take action to reduce human rights abuses in their communities.

The writers work for UN agencies.