We cannot talk about a safer and healthier society without gender justice which ensures people’s access to justice, health, education and economic opportunities. It is for this reason that lawyer and human rights practitioner Sarai Chisala-Tempelhoff established Gender and Justice Unit (GJM) to champion gender and justice among women. She says the country’s major challenge is the gap between legal protections and reality.
Sarai observes that even when laws exist, many women don’t seek justice because of fear, stigma, economic dependency, or community pressure. For example, she says gender-based violence (GBV) survivors often lack safe spaces to report their experiences, counselling and guidance on how to move through formal structures. Therefore, she said there was a need to ensure women have their fundamental rights and freedoms respected.
“I founded GJM in 2017 after witnessing the gap between the rights women hold in principle and the realities they face in practice. Too many women live with the consequences of laws they cannot access, do not understand, or cannot activate without guidance. “So, I created the organisation to ensure the law becomes a practical, accessible and empowering tool for women and girls, not a distant system that excludes or intimidates them,” she says.
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Sarai adds that her entire career has been shaped by the conviction that justice must be lived and felt, not merely written in statutes. GJU is a feminist-driven organisation that pairs legal information with psychosocial support, community engagement, safe house referrals and court accompaniment. It also tackles unequal power dynamics, violence and discrimination that disadvantage women and their participation in development.
Sarai says she grew up surrounded by strong women whose resilience and independence taught her the value of knowledge and self-advocacy. “During the height of the HIV and Aids crisis, I saw how misinformation costs lives, including women in my own family. These experiences made it clear that legal empowerment and accessible information are central to gender justice,” she said. One of GJU’s core activities is to provide of free legal services through mobile legal clinics.
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