Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre

The COMBATs Intervention developed by the Gender Centre in 2001 developed a rural, community-based response to violence against women. This was in response to the findings of Gender Centre's 1998 nationwide research on violence against women, (one of the 12 critical areas in the Beijing Platform for Action) One of the expected outcomes of the research was to identify ways and means of combating the problem. The findings of the research led to the development of a number of activities to address the problems identified, including the absence of support to victims of violence in rural communities. The Rural Response System (RRS) trains community community men and women to provide services including counselling to victims of violence in their communities.
This has proved effective in changing attitudes to women's roles and status as well as reducing the incidence of violence within the community not just domestic violence as first envisaged, but even intra-familial violence African Women's Development FundComic ReliefCAMFED - Campaign for Female EducationMasimanyane Women's Rights InternationalNETRIGHT-GhanaThe Ark Foundation, Ghana