Gender Justice & Safety

Embedding safety into culture

The reality

Gender-based violence carries deep, generational trauma in these communities, compounded by high HIV rates and, for children living near the border, a lack of documentation that leaves them without protection. Historically, support has reached individual survivors after the fact. We believe prevention has to start further upstream, with the systems and leaders that shape a village’s norms.

Our approach

We work directly with tribal leadership and school leaders, the people whose decisions shape daily life in a village, to align local bylaws, traditional initiation ceremonies, and school environments with GBV best practice. Alongside this systemic work, we build village-level protection networks and paralegal support, so survivors have an accessible pathway to healing and justice.

What this looks like on the ground

• Training and engagement with tribal and school leaders on GBV-informed governance
• Reform of local bylaws and traditional practices, including a pioneering GBV-informed initiation ceremony pilot
• Community-wide awareness events on GBV, SRHR and HIV
• Local paralegal services and referral pathways for survivors
• Psychosocial and healing-centred support for both survivors and community leaders

The impact (2025)

• 3,281 people directly reached through GBV awareness events in a single year
• 50 tribal and school leaders across 8 villages actively engaged in bylaw reform
• A pilot GBV-informed initiation ceremony for 67 young men

What this means for children

Children cannot grow up safely where violence and trauma go unaddressed. By working through the leaders and structures that set the tone in a village, and by involving whole communities, we aim to make villages safer places to be a child.