Factors which hinder women who experience gender-based violence (GBV) to access social, legal and health services: a case of Kinondoni District

This study aimed at understanding the factors that hinder women who are survivors of Gender-based violence to access services available for GBV survivors in Kinondoni Municipal, in Dar es Salaam. The study involved women aged from 15 years old and above. Data were collected using questionnaires and in-depth interview. A purposive sampling approach was used to select participants of the study and a total of 96 women were selected to participate in the study from four wards of Kinondoni Municipal namely; Makongo, Kawe, Ubungo, and Manzese. Among those participated in the study 42.7% were between the age 25 and 34years, out of whom, 40.6% were married and 37.5% were single. With regard to employment status 41.7% of the participants were unemployed, followed by 39.6% who were employed. The findings from the study revealed that more than a half of the participants had experienced Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in their life time while 72.9% had never accessed any service regarding GBV. A couple of sociocultural factors and structural factors were noted to be reasons behind the GBV survivors’ not accessing services, namely; fear of more violence from the family, little knowledge about the services, low knowledge about the law, fear of losing reputation, lack of courage to seek help, fear of husband/men, cultural belief that women do not have to report about violence experienced at household level, being seen as weak, fear of being divorced, being seen as disrespectful to husband, fear of being isolated from the family, poor quality of services, distance to service centre, problem due to lack of money. The study further found that education and income of women have influence on the experience of gender-based violence as the findings revealed that women with high level of education and high income were less likely to experience gender based violence compared to their counterparts with low education level and low income. Efforts should be increased to make sure that gender-based violence survivors voluntarily seek the services that have been available for them. The Government, in cooperation with other stakeholders, should focus on making people aware of the law and their rights. Furthermore, studies concerning gender-based violence should be done in urban areas since many studies have been conducted in rural areas despite the fact that even in urban areas gender-* based violence is a serious problem in urban areas as well.