Midwives' initiatives in reducing violence against women: Africa and the Caribbean: following the ICM Pre-Congress Workshop held in Vienna, April 2002, midwives' efforts to make a difference to women suffering violence have strengthened.

South Africa

Midwives Bongi Nzama from Fort Hare University and Elizabeth Kaye-Petersen from the University of Pretoria attended the ICM workshop in Vienna and wrote afterwards--`we are grateful for having had the opportunity of ... the PreCongress Workshop. It was an eye-opener for us, and it has broadened our professional development'. They have since made swift progress towards developing a policy around care for victims of violent assault and getting appropriate training programmes established.

Their interest lies particularly in providing care and assistance for those who have suffered sexual assault, their vision being

`... a high quality, co-ordinated and holistic sexual assault service wrath meets the health needs of the person, partner and family the needs of the criminal justice system for well-presented medico-legal evidence and the needs of the community in contributing to community protection and justice.' Bongi and Elizabeth were able to arrange a meeting between themselves and colleagues, the South African Minister of Health and the High Commissioner for Canada whose government (the Canadian International Development Agency) has offered funding towards the training project.

Media attention at this high profile forum also helped to raise awareness about the important issues. The ministerial meeting was followed by a two-day conference exploring current and innovative models of sexual assault care.

The draft policy document drawn up by Elizabeth and Bongi emphasises the importance of this type of care and its contribution towards reducing both unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS--a problem of priority concern in South Africa.

Importantly, the midwives note that the work required relates to a number of units within the Department of Health, including:

* The Maternal, Child & Women's Health cluster--to drive the implementation and play a co-ordinating role

* The HIV/AIDS cluster--to input on protocols for post-exposure prophylaxis, prevention and treatment

* The Mental Health Directorate--to be involved in counselling and a victim empowerment programme

* Health Promotion--to work towards primary prevention of sexual violence

* Health Research and Epidemiology Unit--to commission research to inform the delivery of services, and contribute to the evaluation

* Quality Assurance--to ensure that standards are met, including a private examination room in hospitals.

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