19 June 2015 - Aiming to support and protect survivors of gender-based violence, UNMISS handed over a newly-constructed safe house to the Central Equatoria State government in Juba today.

“The objective is to ensure that there is a safe house for survivors who don’t feel happy to continue to live in (an) environment (which) is hostile to them,” said UNMISS Human Rights Officer Anthony Nwapa. “We have to accommodate them here temporarily and offer them all the necessary legal and medical support as well as psychosocial support that they need.”

The safe house, which was handed over to the State Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, was a joint initiative of the UNMISS Human Rights, Gender and Child Protection sections, in collaboration with the Nepalese battalion.

Noting that survivors often feel ashamed and don’t want to live where they were abused, State Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare Mary Apai Ayiga said the safe house was needed to help in counseling them before they are taken back to where they lived before.

“In Juba, when survivors are abused, they feel ashamed (and) they don’t want to stay where they are,” she said. “They would seek for places to go but there are no places for them to go. So this is a rehabilitation center … we feel when they are here they will feel more secure and happy.”

She appealed to development partners to donate beds, tables and chairs for the four-room safe house.

Ms. Apai also requested UNMISS to provide training for social workers in her ministry so that they are able to handle victims. “It is not easy to handle the survivors of gender-based violence. (The social workers) need really good training so that they are able to counsel these survivors.”

Zekria Shamia Amin, a social worker at the ministry, said the safe house would help the ministry keep gender-based violence cases confidential. “This office is going to keep the confidentiality of the survivors … unlike when it is done in places exposed to public.”

The Nepalese Battalion’s commanding officer, Bhuvan Khatri, said the project was constructed over a period of two months at a total cost of $50,000.