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Lack of resources crippling abuse helpline
Gill Gillford. The Star. 13 January 2003. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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The two national toll-free helplines that handle the priority issues of HIV/AIDS and the abuse of women in South Africa have experienced very different treatment.
The HIV/AIDS helpline is manned by 58 counsellors rotated on a 24-hour roster. All receive salaries, are paid extra for weekend and public holiday shifts, and their transport costs are covered.
However the Stop Women Abuse Helpline, a crisis counselling service for beaten and traumatised women, is staffed by only 18 counsellors, who are unable to cope with the round-the-clock duties due to lack of resources.
This results in the line shutting down through the night, often the time it is most desperately needed.
On the financial front, the line barely survives from month-to-month, and although it is expecting a large donation next month, the Stop Women Abuse Helpline currently doesn't have enough money to cover this month's salaries.
Ironically both services are run by Life Line Southern Africa, and are in the same counselling centre, on the 10th floor of Braamfontein's North City House.
This is where the equality ends. According to Mbangi Dzivhani, the manager of the Stop Women Abuse Helpline, the counsellors there put in the same amount of work as their HIV/AIDS helpline counterparts, yet are not paid extra for transport, weekend work or public holidays.
It was only when United States Aid stepped in with funding last September that their salaries were doubled, finally ensuring that their pay is now the same as those working for the HIV/AIDS hotline.
Dzivhani said: "At the moment we are advocating for the linkage of the two services because HIV/AIDS is so closely related to gender-based violence.
"For example, if a rape victim comes forward, HIV/AIDS is automatically an issue.
"With domestic violence it is worse because the abuse takes place in the home and, even in cases where the woman knows her husband has been unfaithful, she is unable to get him to use a condom.
"A common type of call we get is from a married woman who has fallen pregnant and tests positive for HIV when she gives birth.
"All hell breaks loose in that situation and we see it often," Dzivhani said.
While the departments of social development and justice have given funding to the Stop Women Abuse Helpline, it has not been ongoing. Most money comes from overseas donors.
"At the moment we are living from hand to mouth. We need a dedicated fundraiser, but we don't have the money to pay for one.
"The line is toll-free for the caller, meaning that we carry the costs. Telkom has refused to even subsidise the service, so after handling an average of 2 000 calls a month our phone account is usually about R80 000," Dzivhani said.
"Come the time for the 16 Days of No Violence Against Women campaign, we were the first to be approached by the government to lead the campaign - yet we are not recognised as a cause worthy of funding."
She added that for the past two years the Stop Women Abuse Helpline had applied for lottery-based funding, but after following all the guidelines and meeting the criteria, the application was turned down.
The type of calls received by the women abuse line also differs in intensity from those called in to the HIV/AIDS line.
While about 70 percent of the calls received by HIV/AIDS counsellors are requests for information, almost three-quarters of the women's line callers are in need of counselling and support.
Dzivhani adds that "sometimes I go into the counselling centre, because part of my function is to assess the calls we receive. After 30 minutes I'm exhausted".
Lisa Vetten, gender co-ordinator for the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said the situation was "symbolic of a bigger problem" in which counselling was seen as "women's work" with emotion and caring not highly valued.
"In the government budget report to be released next month the commitment to fight women abuse has been met on paper, but there's been no budget commitment and very little money set aside.
"If the test is financial, we can say that government has shown very little commitment. There are a very few hard-working individuals, but the commitment that should come from the top is simply not there," Vetten said.
"Organisations are forced to rely on foreign donors, but that makes them vulnerable because if that foreign funding dries up, where can they look for money?
"Women in abusive situations are unable to afford to pay for the help they need, so it's a problem that won't go away," she added. |
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