Preparations for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

Gender Links hosted "Strategic Communications on National Action Plans to End Gender Violence and IT capacity building workshop" on the 6 & 7 October 2008.  The purpose of the workshop was to:

• To develop a targeted communications strategy for 16 Days of Activism.
• Use the 16 Days of Activism Campaign to leverage the 365 Day Action Plan.
• Build skills for the implementation of the strategic communications plan.

Present at the workshop was a variety of activists from different organisations.  There were also representatives from government (GSCIS) and Ekhuruleni Municipality.

To draw from the experiences, success and failures of other campaigns, the workshop started with presentations from activists involved in certain campaigns.  Paul Phakathi from Margaret Singer spoke about the communication strategies used in their campaign Boys for Change. He explained that they worked with the boy child in order to challenge gender norms.  Paul stated that the campaign had huge impact because it was unique - for a change, the boy child is doing something positive.  He also added: "for an approach to be effective, it has to be felt by people on the ground".

Thabo Thamae from Let Us Grow also spoke about a project of theirs called Men's Calabash. In this project, Thabo explained that they visit shebeens in order to engage men in conversations relating to violence against women and HIV/AIDS.  However, Thabo said to get the men's attention, they sometimes have to buy them atleast a bottle of beer. This was challenged by many of the workshop participants saying that "we have to be clear on our stand" because alcohol is one of the causes of violence against women.

In his defense, one of the participants said that one needs to ensure that people gain your trust. If it means buying alcohol for them then be it.  This in a way made sense.  It reminded me of an episode on Three Talk just a few weeks ago.  There was an author who wrote a book on underground prostitution and he also said that to get the women to talk and for them to gain his trust, he bought them alcohol.  He did this for more than six months.  However, questions remains:  Is it acceptable to compromise our standards?

For the rest of the workshop, we were tasked with interesting activities.  Partner organisations also committed to assist during the 16 days.   

Women'sNet will be leading the 16 Days of Activism sms campaign.  We are also going have an ICT day for women (date not yet confirmed) where will be introducing participants to technology as a tool to fight against violence against women - Take Back The Tech.

For more information on the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, go under campaigns on the Women'sNet website and click on the 16 Days.  Also, visit our website during that period to participate in the forums that will be taking place.