DEAL WITH SRGBV CASES Leah Samakayi Kasaji ZNUT (Zambia National Union of Teachers)
It was a cool Monday morning in March 2017. We were in the Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) board room packing shirts for the international women’s day celebrations. It was me, Juliet and Sombo. We were very busy because the shirts had to reach all the 10 provinces the following day since International Women’s Day was just a day after. Linna, the secretary, was helping us with recording the number of shirts packed in each bag. When all was done, l called Ndundi the Office helper to load all the packs on the ZNUT Gender Vehicle so that he could take them to the intercity bus terminus in Lusaka and put them on buses to various provinces. At this point, the General Secretary of my organization (ZNUT) sent his Office Secretary to call me saying there was a sad development that needed my urgent attention. This worried me and scared me at the same time. I quickly rushed to the Office of the General Secretary who saw me entering in a panic state. The General Secretary then said “Why are you panicking?”, l replied ‘but what is it Boss that has gone wrong?” My boss then told me that, he had received a phone call from Herbert. Herbert is one of the national change team members who resides in the Southern part of Zambia. That scared me even more because he usually travels for SRGBV programs within that province. What came to my mind was that he was involved in a road traffic accident. At that point, my colleagues Juliet and Sombo followed me to the Office of the General Secretary while Linna and Ndundi remained looking after the packed shirts. Sombo then screamed “what is the matter?” Juliet said, “Is everything okay?”
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