Oxfam Zambia has launched a Television programme of its “I care about her” campaign with hope that it wwould help in addressing challenges of passion killings that the country is experiencing.

Speaking after the campaign launch at Muvi Television on Saturday, Oxfam Intra-health International Male Involvement Officer Raymond Havwala said the campaign which was launched in 2012 to fight against Gender based violence had continued to impact communities in Zambia positively.

“In communities where we are implementing this campaign, it has achieved so much such that we have communities like, Namwala, Rufunsa where men themselves have come on board and testified to say they used to be bad men and that the campaign had helped them to even be much more better men because they are now receiving more benefits from non violent men. But by and large, Oxfam through YWCA did an impact assessment of the ‘I care about her’ campaign and the report showed that in communities where this campaign is being implemented, there is a lot of change. So the campaign has achieved its goal, what we just need to do is to expand it into other provinces so that other people can also begin to appreciate what we are doing,” Havwala said.

“The campaign has capacity to address the challenge of passionate killings but we need to change the narrative especially with the media. I think the media needs to help this campaign achieve its goal. Recently, there have been so many reports that men are being killed as compared to women, but that is not the case. There are a lot more women being killed at the hands of men which is not being reported but when one man is killed, everyone on the social media is talking about it and it’s showing that violence has turned and men are now becoming victims which is not the case. But all in all, this campaign has capacity to stop those passion killings because it’s promoting love and peace.”

And Access to Justice Coordinator Namuchala Mushabati who is part of the campaign said the main causes of gender based violence were lack of knowledge and the the imbalance in power relations between a man and a woman.

“The main causes of gender based violence is the imbalance in power relations, where men feel that they are more superior than women but the other thing also is lack of information. People don’t have information on what violence is and that makes them to justify even things that are wrong. When a woman is beaten by her husband for burning relish, she will tell people to say ‘I burnt relish and that’s why my husband beat me up’ you see? She is already justifying something which is wrong but it’s GBV and she needs to know that no one should lift a finger against her even when she has burnt relish. So lack of knowledge on what GBV is and also on the laws, are main causes of violence against women and girls,” said Mushabati.

Meanwhile, Generation Alive Programmes Manager Womba Wanki said the campaign which also aimed at building capacity in young girls and women would achieve its intended goal because it was unique.

“As Generation Alive, what we are basically doing is engagement and dialogue on laws and policies to do with GBV. Then we are also in charge of building the capacity of women to be able to report GBV cases against them and also for them to know the laws and policies that exist where GBV is concerned. We are confident that this campaign will work out and achieve it’s goal because its unique and has brought a lot of stakeholders together in the fight against GBV,” said Wanki.