Anna Salima (24) has painful memories of her first marriage. It only took her a week to realize that she had married the wrong man. In the five years she was married, Anna endured verbal as well as physical abuse but stayed in the marriage in the hope that her husband would change.

But after their first child was born, she called it quits and returned to her parents’ home. The abuse she went through her marriage made her bitter, and vowed not to marry again. However, it wasn’t long when another man literally walked into her life promising heaven.

“He seemed to be somewhat different from my first husband,” she says. “He was so kind and caring, and I thought of giving him a chance.”

Within some months, the two had gotten engaged. A traditional marriage ceremony followed and Anna forgot about the pains of her first marriage. But not for long.  A few months after the marriage, her new husband started querying why she wasn’t getting pregnant.

“I pointed out that it may be his problem as I already had children from my first marriage,” she says, adding, “And this didn’t go down well with him. Suddenly, he became moody and started drinking excessively.”

The drinking was a tell-tale sign of the horrors Anna was yet to face.

“This other day, he came back home totally drunk. We had a minor disagreement and he pulled a knife threatening to stab me,” says Anna. “Luckily, my sister was around and she intervened.”

Things cooled a little when Anna became pregnant. After two years, she also delivered another child but the husband was now too much into the bottle.

I tried reasoning with him but to no avail

One day, as Anna was coming from the field, he saw her husband seated on the verandah. His mood was sour. And in such cases, Anna made it her point to avoid any confrontations.

“He asked for food and I hastily prepared a meal for him,” she recollects. “After that, he said he wanted to sleep with me but I pleaded that I was tired. He tried to drag me into the house and I refused.”

In anger, Anna’s husband went inside the house and came back wielding a machete. He hacked her on the arm twice. Sensing danger, Anna fled, with him hot in pursuit.

“I was bleeding heavily,” she says, “And the only place I knew I was to be safe was at the Community Victim Support Unit (CVSU). I ran as fast as I could, and he eventually became tired and stopped pursuing me.”

At the CVSU, Anna explained what had happened and the members CVSU alerted the community policing forum who went to her house and apprehend the husband.

Seeing that Anna was badly injured and without the means to access essential services, the CVSU linked up with community fund committee (CFC) to release some funds so that she could go to the hospital for treatment. The CFC structure is part of the European Union funded Spotlight Initiative’s creation that helps GBV survivors with resources to access health, police and courts services.

“At the Health Centre, they said my wound was severe, and I was referred to Nkhata Bay district hospital,” she says. “They then put a plaster of Paris on the injured arm and told me to come back for checkup in two months.”

The CFC also supported Anna with more funds as transport to enable her attend court sessions where her case was being heard.

“I am thankful for the support,” she told UNFPA. “Without it I couldn’t have made it to the court sessions. As the complainant in the case and the principal witness of the prosecution’s case, I was supposed to attend the court sessions not only as the witness but also as a key stakeholder in the case.”

Anna’s husband was finally convicted and is currently serving 6 years in prison with hard labour. However, Anna feels the sentence should have been stiffer.

“I wanted him to get 30 years or more,” she says. “I am lucky that he injured my arm as he was aiming for the head. Such people should be put away for life as they are not only a risk to women but the community at large.”

Nkhata Bay has one of the highest cases of gender-based violence (GBV) in the country. Recent statistics for the district show that out of 100 women and girls that experienced GBV, 11 of them experienced physical violence.

UNFPA has supported 18 communities at Traditional Authority or Sub Traditional Authority level in Nkhata Bay with the community fund varying from MK600,000 or MK900,000.00 each. The total amount disbursed to CFC’s is MK13,500,000.00. As of April, 2022, the community fund had supported a total of 823 women and girls who experienced and survived GBV cases of in the district.

Joseph Scott, Communications Analyst