3.1 Making Legal Services Accessible through Community Focal Persons Vidah Mwale is a woman on a mission – to provide legal aid to the most vulnerable groups in society. She is the CFP based in Bindura and works for JCT. Mwale is also a community child care worker in the town. She has received basic legal education from JCT. Today, she offers psychosocial assistance to victims of gender-based violence, and works on sensitization and capacity building of communities and stakeholders that are involved in the fight against GBV and the support of victims. “Our work (as CFPs) necessitates a lot of activities: among them community awareness campaigns which have increased the demand for legal services, ‘’she said. CFPs receive a variety of GBV related cases which include maintenance, domestic violence, sexual abuse and birth registration. They empower the clients with the legal knowledge and process and monitor their cases in court. As a trained CFP and CCW, Mwale also uses the case management approach where she refers to relevant stakeholders for survivors to access services and to obtain further support. “Together with other CFPs, we provide information about GBV and help survivors connect to GBV services in their communities. ‘’ CFPs use existing community platforms – community meetings and social gatherings, to hold dialogues and come up with community-tailored strategies. “Working with other stakeholders, such as government departments is of capital importance to us, as we see that the fight against GBV, and the joint investigations supported by the project, are one of the most efficient and sustainable means in the fight against gender-based violence,” said Mwale. “Common knowledge that a perpetrator has been put in jail is a very important way to prevent, for example, new sexual violence to occur.” Her work, and that of other CFPs in the community has helped transform socio-cultural norms. Mwale assists about 50 clients monthly to access legal services on GBV. Multi-Sectoral Approach Yields Results: Tatenda’s Story Mwale was very impressed by her encounter with 15-year old Tatenda’s sexual abuse case. Tatenda, of Bindura, is one person who has experienced sexual abuse at the hands of her 82-year old lustful uncle. When she was in Grade Four, her parents divorced, and she was forced to stay with an aunt in Bindura town, up to the time she finished Grade Seven. The aunt, however, could not afford school fees for her to continue with her studies. Another aunt from Dotito, a rural area in the province, offered to stay with her and pay school fees for Tatenda. Little did Tatenda know that her dreams of becoming a nurse would be dashed. First, her aunt verbally and physically abused her, even for minor mistakes. Second, her 82year old uncle twice proposed love to her, at which Tatenda refused. She recalls the uncle telling her, “You’re going to be my wife, whether you like it or not!”