Mazabuka General Hospital is set to start using the Colonoscopy machine to enhance the evidence on sexual assault cases in the courts of law.
Zambia Centre for Communication Programmes (ZCCP– Kwatu) has trained 25 healthcare service providers on how to use the machine and compile reports which survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV) need, as part of the forensic evidence needed in court.
ZCCP–Kwatu Technical Advisor-Clinical, Agness Mwanza, said the machine is an advanced piece of equipment which requires technical training, for healthcare providers as it helps GBV survivors access justice.
Ms Mwanza said with the use of the machine, health personnel would now be able to view injuries and lacerations they could not see with their naked eyes.
She said this in Mazabuka during the training of nurses, doctors, clinical officers and psychosocial counsellors on GBV identification, first line support and examination of survivors with the use of the Colposcopy machine.
The training was conducted by ZCCP–Kwatu with support from the USAID ‘Stop GBV Project’.
And Victoria Mubita, a Nurse at the Mazabuka General Hospital, One Stop Centre said the centre has had the Colposcopy machine for a while, but staff had no capacity to use it until after undergoing the training.
Mrs. Mubita further said the centre was faced with challenges such as lack of manpower as it had no social worker and no victim support unit (VSU) officers.
She said this resulted in GBV survivors being sent to various departments to acquire services which they were supposed to get from the centre.
Mrs. Mubita added that GBV cases have kept increasing as many people come to report, unlike in the way it was in the past.
Meanwhile, Mazabuka General Hospital Senior, Resident Medical Officer, Yollande Nkulu said she has been equipped with the skills on how to collect vital information from GBV survivors after undergoing the training.
ZCCP–Kwatu is also scheduled to conduct similar trainings in Monze and Choma and a total of 60 healthcare providers have been identified for training in the two districts.
“WHAT IS GBV?!”
“As long as people get not the unbiased and explicit meaning of GBV, the tax payers money is been wasted!; the funds for this cause could be channeled to issues of major concern in the health sector such as building childrens hospitals and upgrade of hospital facilites…GBV is not one gender but 2 – male and female, just clarifying!” Jesse.
If that’s the sole purpose of the machine then it should be at ZP VSU and not the hospital. It looks like it won’t contribute to diagnosis but to prove the commission of crimes. Nowadays even doctors whom we used to trust have become corrupt and dishonest. I remember how the autopsy report for Maketo Mabenga was twisted by one pathologist after the family of the suspect visited him. It had to take a 2nd opinion from Nkhanza to collaborate the evidence and convict the criminal. So even with this machine there’s no guarantee that the tests will be genuine. So take it to the Police to help them in their investigations
I hope another equipment for checking Male GBV survivors has been organized too. The Zambia Police too should be to using their 6th sense when dealing with these GBV sexual related issues as sometimes the purported abused just cooks up stories when certain demands are not met yet initially there was a mutual agreement between the two. Male colleagues have been deliberately and willfully implicated in these sexual scandals’ as what the other gander claims is gospel truth. Men are sufferers in most cases and no one looks at their side of story .
What a load of malabishi!
Please bring us also parental testing machines so that there is no cheating among our female folks. This will help reduce GBV and spread of HIV/AIDS.