Gender based violence (GBV) includes sexual, domestic, economic, structural, and intimate partner violence. Recent statistics indicate how profound and widespread the problem of GBV is in South Africa. The country ranks first in the world for the number of sexual violence cases with 500,000 people raped every year. It is also estimated that one woman is killed every eight hours. Africa Unite is therefore deeply committed to finding ways to tackle this problem. So far, our efforts have included a workshop, silent marches, and a social media campaign. The central element has been our workshop, that we have been conducting with learners from different high schools, as well as with young people in community meetings in the Western Cape region.
The workshop aims to raise awareness on GBV, and giving young people a heightened understanding of gender, its power structures, and the ways this may lead to violence, thus allowing them to become partners in ending GBV. So far, the workshop has reached nearly 400 young people.
This is a snapshot of what young people have been discussing so far.
Africa Unite Blog 