Tearfund’s response to Sexual Violence
Background
Tearfund’s response to sexual violence (SV) was born out of our response to HIV in the Great
Lakes region of Africa in 2011. Women and girls in the region were living with the silence and
pain of rape even as they were dealing with their HIV status. Tearfund invested in research to
understand this issue and explore the hopes of those affected by SV. A key aspect of this
research was to unpack the real potential and expectations of the Church. The research was
conducted across Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and Liberia.
The findings were similar across the 4 countries but there were deeper issues specific to their
unique cultures and conflict contexts. The extent of violence and abuse suffered by women
and girls and some men and boys was staggering in every country. The Church and faith
groups were highlighted for their failure to speak out and address vulnerabilities of survivors
of SV. However, there remained a strong desire from the survivors for their church to be a
compassionate ‘safe’ place for them to go to. This resonated with Tearfund’s overall vision for
the Church in mobilising faith leaders to be active players in the fight against sexual violence
and equipping the Church to respond to these issues in their communities. This began our
journey, to enable the Church to speak out and be that safe space people needed.
To create a united response across the globe, in 2011 Tearfund mobilised the Anglican
Communion, Restored, Christian Aid and UNAIDS to launch an international Christian
coalition committed to ending SV globally called ‘We will Speak Out’ (WWSO)1, a
collaborative Christian initiative. The coalition has become a key network working with various
stakeholders who acknowledge the expertise and experience that Tearfund and other
coalition members have in working with faith groups in the area of sexual and gender based
violence (SGBV).
1
To date, WWSO has 19 members and is gaining recognition as a key faith movement. Please look up
www.wewillspeakout.org for more information.
1
Tearfund’s SV strategy for 2015-2018
What started as a pilot initiative has grown into a serious response with a wide range of
partners, strategic allies and stakeholders across several countries, with plans to expand to
more.
Tearfund’s focus on SV prioritises countries and communities where the need is great and
where the Church presents an opportunity to prevent SV and create safe spaces. The
strategy looks at a 3-year plan, which includes a mid-term review process that will help
define and embed the strategic themes outlined below. In 2014, Tearfund’s corporate
strategic review highlighted SV as an area of prophetic innovation, which will have a 3-year
pilot phase, in line with the timeframe for the overall strategy.
Across the countries we work in, we aim to mobilise at least 500 faith leaders in the
response to SV, with the intention to reach at least 25,000 people in communities. We
seek to mobilise and work with at least 2,000 men and boys and to grow a movement of
survivors to at least 300 survivors, who will be involved in strategic forums and
discussions.
Our current Focus Countries are: Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Liberia, Central African Republic, Tanzania and Kenya (with a focus on FGM/C) and South
Africa. We are also looking to scale out response to new countries such as South Sudan,
Sierra Leone, Myanmar, Colombia and the Middle East Region (tbc).
We will also look to integrate HIV projects within our SV work, particularly scale out the
use of mobile phone technology to 2 new countries and integrate PPTCT in 3 country
programmes.
We seek to strengthen the gathering of evidence, to demonstrate the impact of the overall
response, through the Tearfund learning forum and the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI). We
will continue to develop the existing partnerships with the UKFCO, UNAIDS and UNFPA
and look to engage with new ones, for eg. UNWomen, Stop Rape in Conflict and
Menengage Alliance. We will continue to grow the work and influence of ‘We Will Speak
Out.’ We aim to increase external investment by an additional £4-5 million.
Super Goal: Faith communities are catalysts in ending Sexual and Gender Based
Violence, globally.
Purpose: By 2018, faith communities in 150 communities across 15 countries
prevent & respond to SGBV.
Key Outcomes & Indicators:
1. Mobilise and equip leadership to speak out and act.
2. Faith communities become safe spaces.
3. Men and boys become key advocates for gender justice.
4. SV integrated proactively into humanitarian response.
5. Survivor movements shape policy and practice.
6. Build a strong faith response to prevent and end Female Genital Mutilation &
child marriage in 3 countries.
2
3
4