This is the ninth year that I have been involved in the 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children in some way. Either as a journalist or helping out local NGO’s in my community in raising awareness about the scourge of abuse.
I first become aware of the various forms of abuse when I was convinced by my mother to help Families South Africa’s Kensington outlet arrange a human chain in the area to raise awareness about abuse. Their target market was school children from Grade 7 to matric.
The response to this initiative was overwhelming, at the time I was not working as a practicing journalist, so instead of reporting on the event I made sure that every media house in Cape Town knew about the event.
"1 in 9 Women who are raped in South Africa go to the police to report the rape"
What was interesting about this 2008 event was not only were radio stations and newspapers interested but so too was television. Something I did not really expect, even though I do tend to push for as much coverage as possible when assuming the role of a Public Relations Officer.
This year, I find myself, talking about the 16 Days of Activism as a talk show host on a local community radio station. I thought the response would be overwhelming to opening the discussion on the campaign of no violence against women and children, considering that an abuser does not respect race, culture or creed, sadly this is not the case.
The question one has to ask is: Despite all of these efforts to raise awareness about gender based violence is it enough and is the community especially women and children prepared to speak out about the abuse or just simply become an unreported statistic?
Just before the start of this campaign, I read with interest a blog on how women often do not report crime against them or even report the sexual innuendo that they at times they have to endure especially in a male dominated environment. Surely now that were are living in 2012,s this stigma associated with reporting sexual crime would by now be something of the past, but this seems to not be the case.
"During 1992 Famsa recognised the threat domestic violence posed to relationships, families and the communities on a whole."
Some of the programmes on offer by Families South Africa (Famsa) includes the Men Stopping Violence Project. According to their website http://www.famsawc.org.za/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_project&project_id=7559&cause_id=1753
The Men Stopping Violence Group aims to improve the safety of survivors of domestic violence by the implementation of specialised interventionist programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence as well as counselling and support measures for survivors of domestic violence.
The group involves confrontation of the perpetrator with regard to the abuse, challenging cognitive distortions that support abusive behaviour and patterns, as well as challenging myths and stereotypes, while also providing empathy and support in terms of addressing early trauma.
During 1992 Famsa recognised the threat domestic violence posed to relationships, families and the communities on a whole. This prompted the organisation to become the first in a third world country to begin working with male perpetrators of violence. Since the inception of the domestic violence programme’s in 1992, Famsa continues to run weekly men’s groups for perpetrators of violence.
In 1992 FAMSA, recognised the threat domestic violence posed to relationships, families and communities. In response to this Famsa became the first organisation in the third world to begin working with male perpetrators of violence. From the domestic violence program’s inception in 1992 until the present day Famsa continues to run weekly men’s groups for perpetrators of violence.
Famsa's Domestic Violence Project consists of two components comprising intervention and prevention methods.
For the last two years I have made a point of covering Famsa’s mini men’s march to Parliament, which despite its name includes young boys and girls who have been through the NGO’s gender identity workshops run at various schools across the province.
In addition to the programmes run at Famsa’s office there also NGO’s like the one in nine campaign that also raises awareness about abuse against women. You can visit their website here: http://www.oneinnine.org.za/22.page . Sadly, only one in nine women report that they have been raped to the police. The organisation was first founded in 2006 at the start of the rape trial of now President Jacob Zuma who was subsequently found not guilty of raping an HIV positive young woman.
According to their website approximately 53 000 rapes are reported annually in South Africa and it is more likely that a South African woman will be raped the country than learn to read.
The question we need to ask ourselves are the demands of our young children, to live in a safe environment where they do not need worry about been raped, or abused falling on deaf ears? How many more times do I need to open the paper and read about a young defenceless toddler been raped before society and we as communities realise that we need to speak out about abuse not just against women but men as well.
Additional information from FAMSA and the 1in9 Campaign website
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