By Hajaratu Kalokoh
A research done by the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) has discovered that survivors of rape and other Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGVB) victims are still paying for medical treatment and reports, against existing laws.
As part of the government’s fight against SGBV, payment for medical services were squashed by both the 2012 Sexual Offences Act and the Domestic Violence Act of 2007.
The CARL study found that 90% of survivors from 2016 to December 2018 were asked to pay. According to the report, only10% could afford the fees, while 80% could not. Another 10% admitted to free treatment.
At the Police, 9% were asked to pay for either stationary or transportation, while 91% said they were not asked to pay.
CARL and Trocaire partnered with nine government hospitals and 25 Family Support Units in Kambia, Port Loko, Makeni, Western Urban and Western Rural to conduct the study.
CARL is an independent, not-for-profit organization that seeks to help promote a just society for all Sierra Leoneans through monitoring institutions of accountability, outreach and advocacy for institutional transparency, capacity building and empowerment of citizens.
In a press statement, CARL also lamented the minimal funding allocated to local medical centers.
Ibrahim Tommy, Executive Director of CARL, noted that in 2013, the FSU was badly funded as they were receiving about 4 million Leones annually as their operational budget.
“‘Part of the problem is the funding regime of this FSU. The Ministry of Finance gives money to the Sierra Leone Police to distribute to various units under the police and the FSU happens to be in one of those units in the SLP,’’ said Tommy.
According to him, there is no functioning safe home for victims at the moment and, therefore, victims normally go back to the community in which they were victimized and continue in that circle of violence.
“We are calling on the Ministry of Finance in particular to think about the possibility of separating the budget from the broader Sierra Leone Police budget,” he said.
Prince Bull Luseni, Project Coordinator at Trocaire, said that CARL was funded by Trocaire to be able to contribute to the minimization of SGBV especially in the northern province, where it’s thought to be highly prevalent.
Trocaire has been funding CARL since 2009. Between 2009 and 2016 they were focused on Bombali District. Lusanie noted during the period they recorded considerable number of reduction in incidences of violence against women through the community engagement model which involves women, girls and the local community structure.
“After 2016, we decided to scale up the project as per Trocaire requirement. We designed national advocacy strategy which will inform our intervention for sexual issues, that strategy required advocating for better services for survivors SGBV,” he said.
“The advocacy would not be successful without a fully funded FSU, so Trocaire funded CARL to lead on the research targeting FSU and Government hospitals where examinations of SGBV victims are acquired,” he said.
He added: “Based on these findings, we are calling on the government to respond to these concerns.”
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