This week’s #fridayfeature shines a spotlight on the Hamba-using policewomen of Wedza.
We introduced 7 Hamba to service providers (police, health-practitioners, health-clinics) back in 2020. The MFA team recently caught up with two of the policewomen who use the Hamba at our site in Shaka Hills, some 13km from the Police station.
Before: “Ah! To come here, walking? It would take at least 2, maybe 3 hours to go one way. It would take us a whole day just to travel to one scene, assess and then travel back. Now, it’s just 30 minutes on the Hamba AND not as tiring!”, said one of the policewomen.
Their station services an area of 650km2 with 1 police officer to 1600 people.
As well as scene attendance, they explained how they’ve been able to maximise and grow their campaigning capacity:
“We do as many as we can now. It’s mainly to go around educating and raising awareness. We have focused on abuse: drug, sexual, child and gender based. For now, because it is the rainy season, we have really pushed the road safety campaigns to teach children not to cross rivers. Also included is advising not to travel at night or travelling in groups, especially for the children, so they are less likely to be targeted.”
And what do the community think?
“People are appreciating us using the Hamba. They appreciate it a lot because we are covering the whole place and in a limited time.
There are time constraints on certain crimes. For example, theft. Like if they have been caught, we need to get there quickly in case another crime isn’t committed in the way of harm towards the perpetrator! And people call the station from the comfort of their own home because they know we have the Hamba now and we will be there”.
Although “comfort” may not be the word to describe reporting a crime, from home, it illustrates a stark contrast for the previous option of seeking safety. Before, even though reporting a crime by phone was still possible, to find safety with Police, people would have trekked several km. Particularly for the abuse-based crimes, the Policewomen suggested that this might have led to reduced crime reporting.
2-years strong with the Hamba, the policewomen are as busy as ever, reaching and teaching across their jurisdiction.