Domestic violence is a major problem in Malawi and, as in other countries, it sadly often goes unreported. One of the reasons it would go unreported more often in Malawi is that the legal system was previously not suitably robust enough to ensure justice was served. Women would not risk raising a legal case against their husband if they either felt that the case would fail due to the in-built inequality in the legal system, or if they were unaware that a suitable law existed to project them from such abuse.

Once the law had been strengthened to enable justice to be more ably served in domestic violence cases AYISE knew it had a duty to ensure this vital law was not just a piece of paper, but was enacted in a practical sense. Hence we engaged with those responsible for enforcing the new law: police officers and judges. These individuals have a pivotal role and must be properly informed if the law is going to have any effect on the lives of women in Malawi. Hence AYISE held sensitisation and awareness raising sessions with these important individuals to ensure that they fully understood the letter and the spirit of the law. We briefed them on the law, and the importance of enacting it in the unique situation of domestic violence cases, where evidence is often one word against another. In addition we gave gender sensitisation training where we discussed the difference between gender roles (assigned by society) and sex roles (necessitated by biology). This will help to improve the thinking of Malawi's legal professionals.

• 50 legal professionals were engaged with
• 100 police officers were engaged with

Follow up evaluation has since shown that recall of the training was relatively high, but that more work needs to be done to clarify with individuals the differences between gender roles and sex roles. This is understandable given the relatively recent occurrences of discussions of gender in Malawi, and the strength of conviction in traditional roles. We have a long way to go but we have got off to a good start.