Femalevendors selling their wares at the Fourth Street bus terminus, now known as Simon Muzenda Street, have welcomed the SMART-Harare awareness campaign, saying it came just in time

Femalevendors selling their wares at the Fourth Street bus terminus, now known as Simon Muzenda Street, have welcomed the SMART-Harare awareness campaign, saying it came just in time The campaign, held in the form of roadshows, is being implemented by theWomen’s Action Group (WAG)in partnership with theFemale Students Network (FSN) It falls under the Sexual Harassment Prevention and Mainstreaming Actions for Real Transformations (SMART Harare) project in the Harare Central Business District The aim is to reduce sexual harassment affecting female street vendors The campaign continues tomorrow and will resume on August 29 The awareness campaign comes hot on the heels of the ban on night vending, an unpopular Government directive which was met with much opposition It also follows the rape of a 13 year old pupil raped at Rezende Parkade bus terminus recently Some of the female vendors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that while the campaign was commendable, more needed to be done to provide clear avenues for reporting abuse This campaign is wonderful It will help us in a great way But we want to know the exact place to lodge our complaints If we know that place, it will be fine Because if they tell us to report to the police such cases of sexual harassment, a police officer will deny that it is happening and they will arrest you,” said one vendor “If you refuse the sexual advances, they will arrest you every day, so we end up agreeing.” Another vendor claimed that some police officers were exploiting their vulnerability “They are taking advantage of our poverty At times, we give in because we want them to release us so we can go and sell our items “There are times when we buy goods for sale, maybe costing around US$20, but then some officers arrest us and demand a fine of US$30 How am I supposed to raise that money It’s difficult We end up giving in to the sexual harassment,” she said Tambudzai Rukuni, executive director of WAG, said the campaign was launched after it emerged that female vendors often gave in to sexual advances to protect their wares “The SMART Harare project seeks to reduce the sexual harassment of female vendors We found out through focus group discussions that the female vendors were being sexually harassed in the bid to keep their vending business After the harassment, they are afraid to speak out and report these cases,” she said Rukuni added that many women were traumatised by the abuse and often avoided returning to work “Some will skip going to work after being harassed or even being raped They will no longer enjoy their families, and at times they are even afraid to tell their partners because the husbands will assume the wives initiated the harassment, yet it won’t be the case,” she said She also noted a widespread lack of awareness among vendors about how and where to report incidents “They do not know where to report cases of sexual harassment But we are encouraging them to report the cases at the Victim Friendly Unit (VFU), which knows how to handle cases of sexual harassment “The City of Harare police now knows how to handle cases of sexual harassment,” she added Source: Health Times All Zim News is a central hub for all things Zimbabwean, curating news from across the country so no story is missed Alongside aggregation, our team of nationwide reporters provides real-time, on-the-ground coverage Stay informed and connected — reach us at admin@allzimnews.com. Source: Healthtimes