An assessment of the effects of counselling on gender based violence victims : a case study of Choma district, Zambia.

Gender-based violence continues to be endemic in Zambia, in familiar and new forms. Despite multiple policy, legal and program-based intervention against GBV, the Zambian Government and counseling board respectively has had challenges in providing effective counseling to victims of GBV especially in Choma district. This study was limited to Choma district in Southern Province. The research concentrates on counseling and its effects on victims. This is because mostly victims of gender-based violence do not have access to the counseling services. It also focused on how counseling helped perpetrators of GBV with respect to behavioral change. Both male and female victims and perpetrators were included in the study. The study adopted a descriptive design that applied qualitative methodology. A descriptive design observes and analyses the dynamics of a phenomenon as it manifests in a natural context, without manipulation any variables. In this respect such a design sought out answers to the questions “WHAT”, “WHO”, “WHERE”, “WHEN” and “HOW” with respect to Gender
Based Violence and Counseling Processes in the target area. The recommendation made to resolve this challenge was that there is need to formulate and
implement locally based, specialist counseling training programmes and to formulate a policy where more of these courses are offered in institutions of higher education. The participants also suggested that employers must provide attractive compensation packages and working conditions for personnel involved in counseling. Additionally, there was a recommendation that organizations need to intensify in-house training and development programmes for counseling personnel in order to ensure an upgrade in training and enable them to keep abreast with the latest best practices in the field.