致性暴力受害者:你并非孤独无援

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分类: 社会与生活 |
莫桑比克卫生部为性暴力受害者制作的宣传画:“请就近前往医疗所寻求帮助。你并非孤独无援。你可以避免染病。”
美国国务院国际信息局《美国参考》
Kathryn McConnell
华盛顿 — 如同其他许多国家一样,在莫桑比克性暴力仍是一个秘而不宣的话题。受害者们面临着可怕的后果,她们可能会感染上艾滋病毒或另一种由施暴者传播的性病。莫桑比克有11%以上的人口感染了艾滋病毒。
为了解决这一问题,莫桑比克首都马普托以及该国其他四个艾滋病高发区目前正在开展预防性暴力的活动。该活动通过美国疾病控制与预防中心得到美国总统艾滋病紧急救援计划 (PEPFAR) 的资助,并获得美国国际开发署的支持。该活动具体由国际开发署的合作伙伴、总部设在巴尔的摩市的非营利卫生组织Jhpiego负责实施。
该组织驻莫桑比克办事处副主任艾丽西亚·哈拉米罗(Alicia Jaramillo)指出:“这并非社会或文化问题,这是健康问题。艾滋病和其他性病以及意外受孕均可预防。”
该活动最初开始于马普托中心医院,这是一家教学医院,有1000张病床,还有特别急救室,收治妇科病人。2010年以来,Jhpiego与该院进行合作,预防艾滋及其他病毒感染,并为性暴力受害者简化收治程序,无论其年龄或性别有何不同。该组织负责工作场所安全事务的人员安娜·巴普蒂丝塔(Ana Baptista)说,2005年6月至2011年10月,该医院总共收治2400多名受害者,其中有58.6%的人在14岁以下,51%的人为学生。
为了帮助性暴力受害者避免感染艾滋病毒,医院向受害者提供与被带病毒针头刺伤的医务人员采用的相同的预防措施。
哈拉米罗说:“医院有现成的供医务人员使用的感染后预防和治疗手段,由于病人在性暴力发生之后前来求助,因此为这些受害者提供同样的服务是顺理成章的事情。”
该治疗方法包括服用4星期的抗逆转录病毒药物,而且事发后72小时内必须开始服药,以获得最佳疗效。作为这一宣传活动的一部分,组织者推出了一张宣传画。画面中一名年轻女子低着头,脸部被双手遮住。该宣传画张贴在市内医院、警察局和学校,它以充满同情的口吻向性暴力受害者说:“你并非孤独无援!”
据巴普蒂丝塔提供的报告说,只有31%的受害者在性暴力发生后的72小时内前往马普托中心寻求预防治疗。因此,她和她的同事们发起一项社区活动,以提高人们对性暴力的认识,并鼓励受害者及其家人立即寻求治疗。
该宣传画强调了及时治疗的重要性。巴普蒂丝塔说:“我们希望受害者们了解,即使暴力已经发生,并非一切无法挽回。你仍有机会,能得到帮助。”
巴普蒂丝塔将在华盛顿召开的世界艾滋病大会上报告这项社区活动的成果。本届大会将于7月22日至27日举行。
该活动还要求警察以适当的方式把受害者送往医院治疗。据Jhpiego即将在大会上做的介绍,马普托中心收治的性暴力受害者中有33%的人是通过警察了解到治疗服务的。
这项活动突出表明:性暴力受害者并非孤独无援,随时有人会伸出援助之手。
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/chinese/article/2012/07/201207239491.html#ixzz21WNosWjR
To Victims of Sexual Violence: You Are Not Alone
By Kathryn McConnell | Staff Writer | 22 July 2012
This public service ad from the Mozambique Ministry of Health targets women victims of sexual violence. It reads: “Seek help in the nearest Health Unit. You are not alone. You can avoid catching diseases.”
Washington — In Mozambique, as in many countries, gender violence remains a guarded secret. Victims face the nightmarish prospect that they may contract HIV or another sexually transmitted infection from an attacker. More than 11 percent of Mozambicans live with HIV.
To address this, a gender-based-violence prevention campaign is under way in Mozambique’s capital of Maputo and in four other high HIV-prevalence areas in the country. The campaign received funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It is implemented by USAID partner Jhpiego, a Baltimore-based international health nonprofit organization.
“This isn’t just a societal or cultural problem, this is a health problem. HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as unwanted pregnancy, they all can be prevented,”’ said Alicia Jaramillo, deputy director of Jhpiego’s Mozambique office.
The program began at Maputo Central Hospital, the 1,000-bed teaching hospital that has a special emergency room for gynecological issues. Since 2010, Jhpiego has worked with health care providers there on preventing infections, including HIV, and on streamlining services for sexual assault victims, regardless of age or gender. Of the more than 2,400 victims who sought services at the hospital between June 2005 and October 2011, 58.6 percent were under 14 years of age and 51 percent were students, according to Ana Baptista, a Jhpiego workplace safety officer.
To help prevent victims of assault from being infected with HIV, health providers provide them with the same prophylaxis that is provided to health care workers who get needle sticks.
“Seeing patients come in to seek care after a sexual assault and having the post-exposure prophylaxis already available to health workers — it was very natural for the hospital to offer these kits to victims,” Jaramillo said.
The regimen consists of four weeks of antiretroviral drugs. The medicine must be administered within 72 hours for it to have the most impact. So part of the awareness campaign is a poster showing a woman with her head down and her face obscured. It appears at the hospital, at police stations and in schools in the metropolitan area and offers a compassionate message to victims of sexual violence: "TU NAO ESTAS SOZINHA" — “You are not alone!”
Baptista reported that only 31 percent of victims came to Maputo Central within 72 hours of the sexual assault. That led her and her colleagues to develop a community-based aspect of the program to raise awareness about sexual violence in communities and encourage women and families to seek treatment immediately.
The poster encourages women to seek treatment immediately. “We want victims to know that even after the assault happens, it’s not over. You have a second chance and you can get help,” Baptista said.
She will present the findings of this community-based campaign at the International AIDS Conference in Washington. The conference runs July 22–27.
The campaign also has a message for police officers: Appropriately refer victims of sexual assault to health facilities for care and treatment. According to the Jhpiego conference presentation, 33 percent of sexual assault victims seen at Maputo Central were referred by police.
The campaign drives home a message: Victims of gender violence are not alone and help is available.