Dear Keitumetse and All,



Regards, 
Taizya Mudenda
MHM AND GENDER ADCOATE

Dear all, 

The SexforWater Campaign, led by ANEW and KEWASNET, pushes for further protection of women and girls in accessing safe water and sanitation services. It fights against Sextortion,  which is a form of sexual exploitation and corruption that occurs when people in position of authority, such as some water vendors in slums and poor communities, seek to extort sexual favours in exchange for something within their power to grant or withhold.

Sextortion is a real and serious yet silent gendered form of corruption and gender based violence that mostly
affects women and girls. It is largely unreported due to fear of reprisal, social stigmatisation, feeling of guilt and shame. 

To read more about the issue consult this important blog on how to Protect and Empowering Women and Girls for Safer Access to Water :  Protecting and Empowering Women and Girls for Safer Access to Water | Globalwaters.org

Tell us about about stories, solutions and tools that can be used to protect further women and girls from sexual abuse and sextortion.

All the best, 

Heloise Chicou
Sex For Water project - advocacy and campaign advisor 

Dear all,

As part of the "Sex for Water Campaign" launched by ANEW and Kewasnet with their local partners Umande and Polycom, we wish to mobilize and raise awareness on the issue of gender violence and WASH. 

We want to share with you testimonies of women, but also here from you to learn about similar situations or solutions you would like to share. 

Here are a few testimonies that come out of the baseline study we launched last year that we would like to share with you. Please do the same.

“Amiddle-aged man (37 years old) used to peep at a girl (13 years old) every
morning when she showered. When the girl reported the case to her mum, she was
ignored until one day this man defiled this girl. The case was brought to our
attention by the village champions and we responded. The girl was taken to
hospital, then the case was reported to the police. We journeyed with the girl
until justice was served. The man was imprisoned to 20 years. We are putting a
smile on the victim’s faces but also ensuring that the community learns lessons
and other perpetrators could not think of defiling girls or raping women.”
Gender Department, SHOFCO

Dear all, 

This topic is key ! Women should be protected from all types of abuse, and sextortion is an intolerable form of corruption and exploitation. Please share with us ideas, examples and solutions to fight against sextortion at the local and national level. 

I wanted to post here the flyer the Sex for Water team did for the International Women Day.

All the best, 

Heloise Chicou
Sew For Water advocacy and campaign advisor 

Dear All,

Thank you very much Chaiwe for this very insightful response.

Since yesterday was International Women’s day, I feel it presents a great opportunity to share, this month, testimonies of women that suffered and/or are suffering from sextortion and also reflect on how far we have come. It has been found that gendered roles, inadequate water points and inadequate clean water and sanitation infrastructure, high population and high poverty are the root causes of sextortion in the WASH sector. These issues lead to overcrowding, insecurity, poor hygiene, lack of privacy and long travel distances to access water points and sanitation services which in turn encourages risks faced by women and girls

We encourage you to ask questions, discuss and share solutions on how to end sextortion for all types of services, particularly for water, sanitation and hygiene! 

We want to hear from you. Your voice can help women all over the world feel supported and free to change their condition.

Regards,
Keitumetse

Dear Keitumetse,

‘Sex for Water’ what a thought-provoking project title. It is quite sad to learn that for Women experience sexual harassment to access water in some parts of the world. As if that is not enough, most of these cases are not documented. Women and girls experiencing difficulties with issues of privacy and security while accessing sanitation facilities puts them at risk. Without appropriate sanitation facilities, they continuously get exposed to SGBV risks. 

The extent of sextortion in the water sector does need to be determined. It is a recurring theme in most of the focus group discussions within this study here by women for water. These experiences are not immediately obvious, but they do have a far-reaching impact on the reality that many women are subject to in order to access water for themselves and their families.

The experiences from Johannesburg highlighted within the report raise questions over one dimension of the term sextortion which is it involving unwanted sexual activity. There should be no mistake made in relation to the existence and severity of sextortion, sexual abuse is an expression of power and it is one of the ways that authority is misused for private gain. Some of the respondents in the study suggested that flirting takes place as a means used by women to convince male officials not to cut the water supply, there is usually a very clear power imbalance between the utility representative and the woman in question. It is crucial to encourage discussion about how corruption is defined, and in what situations one may be exposed to corrupt behaviour. This can benefit a deeper understanding of how women are affected by corruption in their efforts to access water, and how socio-political norms and values shape perceptions about what behaviour should be acceptable or unacceptable. 

In another study in rural south West Bangladesh nine out of ten women’s sanitation focus groups reported feeling unsafe and vulnerable to rape when defecating. The women and girls in these focus groups lived in areas affected by floods. Some had been provided with temporary latrines by NGOs for use when they stayed in temporary shelters. Others were living in their houses and did not have access to latrines or their latrines were damaged by the flood waters. Rape stories and a desire for privacy were prevalent in each group, so women would go to extreme lengths to defecate on high ground away from men. This included wading through chest deep flood water for hundreds of metres. It is important to understand vulnerabilities to violence related to sanitation and hygiene she here:  www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/site...er_Violence_WASH.pdf

While searching for the case examples above, I also came across a toolkit that was created to shine a light on the problem and encourage practitioners to recognise their capacity to make WASH safer and more effective. see here:  violence-wash.lboro.ac.uk/

 A lot more intervention is required from relevant stakeholders to ensure that women and girls are safe from abuse and harassment. Some of the ways is to ensure that there are enough water points as close as possible to the households and reducing user fees at kiosks. 

I hope this answers your question:

It would be really interesting to know and discuss whether or not, this is the reality in other vulnerable communities. If so, what interventions are in place and how successful are they.

Regards,
Chaiwe

Dear All,

Following the webinar on the dissemination of the baseline study on Sex for Water project,  I would like to share with you the presentation that outlines the methodology used in the findings, the findings themselves, key advocacy messages and the recommendations. Please find the presentation   

Before the baseline study, a documentary on the same topic was produced by Kewasnet in collaboration with African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW) and SIWI. Please have a look at it here .

It would be really interesting to know and discuss whether or not, this is the reality in other vulnerable communities. If so, what interventions are in place and how successful are they.

Please share your thoughts.

Regards,
Keitumetse

Dear SuSanA family,

The Kenya Water and Sanitation Civil Society Network (KEWASNET) in partnership with the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW) and SuSanA Africa Regional Chapter are implementing the Sex for Water (SFW) – Promoting Safe Space for Girls and Young Women in Kibera Project. The aim of the project, is to help in improving Civil Society’s and the community’s capacity to participate in better service delivery in water and sanitation for vulnerable women and girls.

As such, you are cordially invited to attend and participate in virtual launch and dissemination of the baseline survey findings. The platform will also offer opportunity to discuss the report findings, initiate and sustain policy dialogue on SFW for sustainable efforts to ultimately win the war against WASH linked sexual exploitation and/or violence. 

Date:  24th November 2020
Time: 2:30 - 4:00pm EAT

Zoom Link: us02web.zoom.us/j/84715470019?pwd=bm5xbl...OGtKY1RWbUF2RTRZQT09 
Meeting ID: 847 1547 0019
Passcode: 309725 

Please find attached the Final Baseline Survey Report 

Regards,
Keitumetse