When Senior Superintendent Ntunji Chella first embarked on a mission to Darfur in 2015 as part of the African Union–United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), she had no idea what to expect.

At that time, she was a well-experienced training needs analysis officer, but completely in the dark about what that would look like in an active conflict setting because she hadn’t received any pre-deployment training.

“We were training as we went,” she says simply. “There was nothing like what exists now.”

She would spend two and a half years in one of the world’s most complex peacekeeping environments, figuring it out as she went. When she came home, she brought back an understanding of what women heading into the field actually need and what stands in the way of getting them there.

Now, a few years later, Snr Supt. Chella works at the Zambia Police Service headquarters in peace support operations. And at the beginning of 2026, she watched as something she never had was formally handed over at the Geoffrey Mukuma Police Training College in Sondela. A purpose-built women’s accommodation block with an accompanying daycare facility now stands at the training centre ready to house women like Snr Supt. Chella, who are passionate about the peacebuilding and peacekeeping process, with a safe and secure place, enabling them to take part in and receive much needed pre-deployment training.

The rooms in this facility are designed with women in mind, and the daycare is staffed and ready for use. Together, they are the most visible part of a years-long reform effort that has sought to ask, and honestly answer the question of what would it take for a woman with children to still be able to play an active role in peacekeeping operations.