East Africa

To understand somebody [who has experienced sexual assault] and to be able to communicate with someone, you have to choose your words carefully. You have to choose your thoughts, cause thoughts leads to words, and…

Facilitator: Yeah, cause like, in Africa, if it happens, then it was your fault. Most times in Africa, they tell you [the person] raped you because, “I told you not to wear that short skirt.”…

Where it [the policy] says, “the incident does not fit policy,” how would I know if something doesn’t fit the policy? […] Let’s say in the case of groping, what you call groping might not…

I think my brothers would like the policy, because they know how guys are. So, personally, they [would] think the policy is better if it is applied, because then I could walk around safely. […]…

I feel like the most important thing is more support for the victim, because at some point, they don’t even want somebody to be touching them. They just want somebody to be listening to them,…

The funny thing is, when I think about what I’ve said and what I’ve heard, when you have been sexually assualted, the last people you tell is your family members. Why? because you are feeling…

Participant 1: I would look for someone who provides me with more recommendations of how I could approach the problem. Like, it’s good to listen to my problem, but I think for me, it would…

Participant 1: Offer them counselling because, in Africa, you can’t find counselling. Participant 2: Not even – don’t put counselling in such a way, because we don’t really understand counselling. Facilitator: Okay, maybe for us,…

Participant 2: “Counselling” is such a formal word. Like, white people are used to counselling- we are not. We don’t have counsellors. So the way we talk about it is when we are at school,…

Participant 1: If I say that somebody is looking at me weirdly, I know…I feel like…not that everyone from Africa has been raped, but definitely, somebody has already gone through that. Facilitator: Or, you know…