From her creaking bed that had become another source of her miseries, she sidled to the door and listened, before asking the person knocking to identify himself.

Her first thought as a traditional birth attendant (TBA) for the last 15 years, was that the man had come to request her to attend to his wife who was in labour. Another thought was that the men had come to alert her about an attack by militia men.

But when she opened the door after they identified themselves, she got a totally different message. The man had walked more than two kilometres to report to her about his six year-old daughter who had been knifed three times by a man attempting to rape her.

The girl had screamed on being pinned to the ground by the elderly man, prompting him to knife her in an attempt to silence the screams that were going to arouse public attention.

Fortunately, other villagers who heard the screams responded quickly to her distress calls. The next step by the girl’s father was to rush and report the matter to Guleed.

Being late in the night, Guleed asked the man to wait until morning to enable her to visit his home and discuss the next steps of action. Meanwhile, the girl’s family rushed her to hospital.

The following day at around 8.00 am, Guleed was in the man’s compound where she listened pensively as the girl’s family narrated again what transpired the previous night.

She then did what she knows best: counselled them, before they moved to report the matter to the police. Later, she met the girl and counseled her as well. By the time of writing this article, the girl was still recovering. Her case is just one of the many that are replayed across the world especially at this time when people are marking the World Women’s Day.

The month of March is significant for the commemoration of International Women’s Day on the 8th. One of the key concerns among those who advocate for women’s rights is the persistence of gender based violence, especially rape, which is meted out against young girls and women.

The situation is worse in conflict prone countries or countries emerging from conflict, such as Somalia, where the legal institutions that women could have turned to for justice have long collapsed.

In such contexts, matters of rape or other gender based violence are decided upon by community or clan elders, the majority of whom are men, and therefore likely to pass the verdict in favour of the male defendant.

That is why the need for alternative innovative interventions that respond to the needs of abused women need to be pursued urgently.

In the Somali case, for instance, if the attempted rape incident had occurred four months ago, the young girl’s father would not have reported it to Guleed. Nor would Guleed have been able to respond to their needs even if the man had reported the matter to her.

However, Guleed was able to make an intervention in the case thanks to an empowering counselling training she received in late 2005.

The training, which was funded by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Somali office, and implemented by Somali Development Organisation (SDO), saw 20 counsellors trained in two regions – 10 in Galkayo and 10 in Bossaso - of Puntland State of Federal Somalia.

Guleed was one of those trained in Galkayo. During the training, the women were introduced to different forms of gender based violence, the manifestations of such violence and how to counsel those affected.

They were also expected to create awareness within their communities about the negative outcomes of such violence. This was extremely important because cases of rape and other forms of gender based violence go unreported as they are treated as fictional or non-issues by a majority of the people in Somali.

“Before the UNIFEM training, I did not know that FGM and rape were forms of GBV nor how to respond and help those affected. But after the training, I can confidently counsel people,” says Guleed.

“In fact,” she added in an elated tone, “majority of the cases I am handling now are rape-related because after the training and the awareness campaign, people are coming forward to consult me.”

Besides rape, Guleed says she also educates and counsels families on the harmful effects of FGM on their daughters. The objective of this is to deter the community from persisting with the practice.

Due to their participation in the awareness campaign and handling of rape cases, people in the community now recognise the counsellors as the first point of contact before moving to report the matter to the police whenever it happens.

Since December 2005, the demand for these services has seen Guleed being consulted by over 20 women who have been subjected to rape or attempted rape.

“We need more training on counselling because rape and other forms of mistreatment of women are on the increase.”

She proposes that future training sessions take a longer duration, a minimum of seven days, in order for trainees to expand their knowledge. Likewise, she would like to see the training held in regions that are easily accessible for the people of Puntland.

For now, the only challenge to the current campaign against GBV is that Guleed and others are providing their services on a voluntary basis.

When the three month UNIFEM funded programme begun, the trained counselors worked two days a week and were paid a small stipend for their work.

However, this practice ended when the project came to an end in December, 2005. It is now feared that the spirit of volunteerism may not be sustained for long.

Should they discontinue their services, one of the immediate consequences will be the end of counselling and support for rape survivors and their families.

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