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RCOG World Congress 2023

June 12 - 14, 2023 | London, UK

EP.0469

Empowering female health workers to minimise the effects of Gender Based Violence

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Poster Presenter

Anna Zatorska

Authors

Kokob Gebru Kidanu, Anna Zatorska, Simret Niguse Weldebirhan, Liya Mamo Woldu, Delina Gebreeyesus, Mebrahtom Haftu Tareke, Nafisa Badat, Rahel Kidanemariam, Sarah Malawana, Araya Abrha Medhanyie, Johann Malawana

Affiliations

Mekelle University, The Healthcare Leadership Academy Research Collaborative, Arba Minch University

Part of Topic

Hot Topics (Emerging research/issues) in Gynaecology

Empowering Female Health Workers to Minimize the Effects of Gender Based Violence

Kokob Gebru1*, Anna Zatorska2*, Simret Niguse Weldebirhan 1, Liya Mamo Woldu 1, Delina Gebreeyesus 2, Mebrahtom Haftu Tareke, Nafisa Badat2,
Rahel Kidanemariam 1, Sarah Malawana 2, Araya Abrha Medhanyie1, Johann Malawana 2

1Mekelle University, College of Health Sciences, Tigray, Ethiopia | 2The Healthcare Leadership Academy Research Collaborative |kokobgebru@gmail.com

Introduction:

•Mekelle University is situated in the heart of a recently ceased armed conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, where women in the community including female health workers are at a higher risk of Gender Based Violence (GBV).

•GBV is one of the major public health problems in Ethiopia with reported 46.93% lifetime prevalence of violence against women 1.

•Globally, the United Nations are striving to eliminate violence against women through implementation of programmes that are both sustainable and effective 2.

Objective:

•Our primary objective was the delivery of a bespoke training programme. This consisted of a pilot workshop and e-learning materials that aimed to improve knowledge and confidence of female health workers in addressing GBV within their workplace and communities.

Training Programme Learning Objectives:

•To learn about different types of GBV towards women.

•To learn about root causes and contributing factors of GBV.

•To work through case studies and understand how to address GBV within the workplace and in the community.

•To identify how to support people who face GBV by:

•Understanding the consequences of GBV.

•Learning how to communicate with people affected by GBV in an adequate, sensitive manner.

•Signposting the availability of services within the community.

Results:

•27 female health workers aged 25-42 years old attended a pilot workshop at Mekelle University in November 2022.

•Female healthcare workers were from nursing, health informatics, academic, medical, midwifery, nutrition and public health backgrounds.

•There were statistically significant improvements in self-perceived levels of knowledge and attitudes towards addressing GBV (p<0.001).

Conclusions:

•Our findings evidence the successful application of the training programme.

•Future directions include applying our workshop in ‘train the trainer’ mode.

•Our work can also be applied to wider regions in and outside of Ethiopia.