Background

The organization started as a social movement due to rampant cases of sexual violence which included child sexual assault and rape which continued to plague our communities. According to the Zambia Police Service report, GBV cases, which include sexual related assault rose by 15.2% to 11, 177 cases in the first quarter of 2025, compared to 9, 700 cases in 2024.This brought discontent to the people because it seemed like enough wasn't being done to address the scourge which tearing down the very fabrics of our communities threatening essential components such as trust, confidence and unity. Consequently, bringing divisions among families and communities, creating fear and uncertainty more especially among the most vulnerable such as women and children.

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Current laws seem not to be effective in deterring offenders, neither are they effective in ensuring necessary justice regarding reported cases because judgements take too long to be arrived at which affects the quality of evidence and submissions from victims and witnesses, in addition, suspects also coerce, intimidate or bribe defendants in some cases leading to perpetrators being set free. The quality of support services such as safe houses, medical care and counselling is also poor. According ZNPHI, government only has 7 safe houses, YWCA, an NGO, revealed that they currently have 9 across the country, while other CSO's have fewer. This number of safe houses against an annual record of 2, 646 cases in 2024 is far from being enough. Furthermore, awareness programs both from the government and stakeholders such as CSO’s are inadequate and therefore not significant enough to have necessary impact in preventing SGBV cases..

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Therefore, as a people, we could no longer stand by and let sexual violence cases continue unabated. Groups on social media platforms were formed and protests across the country were held. However, we realized that protests were just the beginning of the campaign because incidences did not subside due to the fact that there were no coordinated efforts among government institutions and stakeholders such as CSO’s to address the problem. Therefore, we needed a long-term sustainable and formal campaign. Consequently, we resolved to register AASEV as an organization to formalize our campaign and fill the gap. So far, we have a dedicated team of voluntary experts from various backgrounds and age groups actively following up cases through the justice system to ensure justice, aligning survivors to support services and raising awareness in communities.

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Our mission is to create a society free from sexual violence by addressing underlying root causes through raising awareness, ensuring justice and support for victims, ensuring systemic reform and promoting integrated efforts among the government, CSO’s and communities.