Social workers in the Kavango West Region are calling for the provision of a safe house for victims of gender-based violence.

This was their call to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on gender equality, social development, and family affairs, which visited the region.

Since the separation of the Kavango Region into East and West, the west remains largely dependent on the east for many private and public services.

For one, the office of the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Social Welfare in Kavango West still sends its GBV victims to safe houses in Rundu or Nyangana, as the region lacks these.

Veronica Mudumbi, Chief Community Liaison Officer at the ministry's regional office, says counselling alone is not enough.

Despite other measures in place to address GBV, she says safe houses remain highly recommended.

"So the client will come to our office, you give them counselling, and this person is going back to the same house where the abuse is taking place. How effective is that? This client will go back to seating because I know I am being abused, but because of my children, where will I take them, because I have nowhere else to go, or because my family is very poor? Even if I go, there is nothing for me. I will still sit there. Now that jeopardises any interventions or any empowerment that you could have given to this client that comes to your office, at least if we had safe houses for our people, then we know we have them in this place for some time, for them to also take time and rethink about their situations."
 
Leading the parliamentary delegation, Bertha Diyakuwa assured social workers that all interventions suggested during the meeting would be taken into consideration.