The DBE hosted a 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children event in Pretoria on 30 November 2015. The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children is an international awareness-raising campaign.
It takes place every year from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to 10 December (International Human Rights Day). The period includes Universal Children’s Day and World AIDS Day. South Africa adopted the Campaign in 1998 as one of the intervention strategies towards creating a society free of violence. The campaign continues to raise awareness amongst South Africans about the negative impact of violence against women and children (VAW&C) on all members of the community.
The information session, held on 30 November 2015 at 222 Struben Street, Pretoria, encouraged staff members and guests present to share their first-hand experiences of gender-based violence, thus highlighting the pervasiveness of gender based violence in all our lives and that we should “count us in”, to combat this scourge suggests. This is the aim of the 16 Days of Activism campaign to combat gender based violence.
Opening the session, Dr Shermain Mannah, Director for Social Cohesion and Equity in Education, reminded all participants that gender-based violence takes many forms and is not always limited to physical violence.
“It is a misperception that gender-based violence is only physical violence; it can often be invisible to the public eye and can take an emotional or psychological form. For example, patriarchy in the work place and in bureaucracies, in particular, is an insidious form of gender-based violence that is an orchestrated conscious effort of disempowerment and de-valuing of women; this type of violence is far more harmful than physical violence which is also common in our homes,” said Dr Mannah.
The audience also heard from Mr Willy Moako, from the victim support group Foundation for Victims of Crime, which assists victims of crime and gender-based violence in the Pretoria area.
“What our research indicates is that a large number of the people we work with lack faith in the criminal justice system and this leads to an underreporting of gender-based violence,” said Mr Moako.
“There is a feeling that while criminals receive support when imprisoned, the victims of their crimes are left to fend for themselves, with no support system in place to assist them.” Hence, the reporting of cases remains very low.
This was echoed by a young women survivor of gender-based violence, who recounted her experiences. The young woman had been abused by a relative and when she spoke out about it to her family and informed the police, she was not taken seriously and shunned.
Her moving story held the audience in awe as she recounted her lonely journey that took her to the brink of suicide. Fortunately, her passion for justice and to raise awareness carried her through to become an activist fighting against gender-based violence. Her story was inspirational as “she used her scars to become her stars”.
Many women in the audience also spoke about the complicity of culture, religion and family in protecting the perpetrators of such violence whilst ostracising the survivor. There was an overwhelming sense that more has to be done to create safe platforms for officials to share their experiences of gender based violence and to begin to unite and heal while raising awareness.
