Sonke Gender Justice

News Category: Blog

  • Meet Sonke’s activists: Vusi Cebekhulu

    Vusi Cebekhulu, One Man Can Coordinator, is a family man, a Christian man and a man dedicated to making his country a better place. Before joining Sonke three years ago, Vusi worked with the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa and the Reproductive Health Research Unit, and his passion for nurturing life skills in others has accompanied him throughout his life.

    Working with people

    One of Vusi’s great skills is working with others. For many years he coached soccer, and integrated life skills education with soccer training. In fact, Vusi was considering going professional when he decided, for a number of reasons, to continue with his studies instead. Many of his soccer proteges have gone on to do great things – some have families, some are teachers, and Vusi is a proud ex-coach.At home, Vusi is the tiny minority in terms of gender, as the only man in the family – Vusi has a female partner and four youngsters in the home… who are all girls! He loves to spend quality time with the whole bunch.

    However, life for Vusi, as for us all, has had its share of ups and downs. Vusi had a life-changing experience when his wife passed on some years ago. “I’ve lost a mother; I’ve lost a father, but it’s different when you lose a partner,” he says. “But I managed to pull through and pick up the broken pieces and I’m still here, I’m still standing.” Although it was a difficult experience, Vusi is someone who loves to grow and develop life skills, so he sees it also as a learning curve, and is proud that he’s “still standing.”

    One of his life’s greatest accomplishments is ongoing. Vusi is a pastor and member at a church that, according to him, is based on traditional attitudes. These attitudes sometimes play out in gendered ways, creating an environment where women cannot always express themselves freely. However, Vusi has increasingly become involved with the church’s leadership in changing the way certain things are done, especially with regard to gender transformation. He believes, “we are all equal before God.”

    Vusi at Sonke

    At work, Vusi is responsible for co-ordinating Sonke’s Community Radio project, which seeks to improve the quantity and quality of radio broadcasting on gender and HIV, and to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality and preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS. He spends a lot of time travelling to community radio stations across the country, setting up relationships with the stations and local community organisations. He provides training both to radio stations staff and partners on gender and HIV, how to discuss gender and HIV on air, and how to develop radio shows on these topics. He regularly appears as a radio guest, drawing on his extensive experience as a trainer and dialogue facilitator to engage listeners on topics as diverse as addressing the stigma associated with HIV and how to support a survivor of sexual violence.

    We thank Vusi for all his contributions to the organisation so far, and look forward to what the future holds for Sonke’s radio project, and for our friend and colleague Vusi Cebekhulu!

  • Brother, I do not want to bury you. Get treated

    Leo Mbobi tells of his struggle to get his ill brother treated for HIV.

    He used to beat me when I refused to go to school. He used to chase me in the gravel streets of Maclear, Eastern Cape, with bare feet. He used to search for me in those forests across the river of Nomlolo where I was hiding because I never wanted to go to school. His determination to be a mentor, brother and abuser was clear. He would say, “You must go to school. If not I will beat you up.”

    He would finally catch me and drag me with my only uniform my mother bought me with the little money she earned on the farm where she was working. My t-shirt would be torn apart and he pulled me and punched my little stomach as if he was punching a punch bag. He would even say, “I want to punch you here so that no one could see that I punished you.”

    I was a fast runner…

    The school that I was supposed to go to started at seven in the morning. I was a good runner. I could dodge like a rugby player. I was inspired by the fact that he would not catch me soon. It would often take hours for him to catch me, but when he finally did I knew I would be punched like a punch bag. He was not afraid to drag me to school sometimes. When we approached the school gate, the bellboy would be ringing the bell to indicate that the sessions of the day are already done.

    He was the hero to my school’s headmistress. They would praise him for his hard work in catching me and dragging me to school. Sadly enough, none of my teachers would question him as he would often not go to school himself for all the chasing me he was doing. He was in the same school doing grade 10. The teachers would praise him for the hard work he had done and encouraged him before they beat me on my buttocks – ten lashes with a cane for not attending school.

    A stubborn man

    He is regarded by my family as one of the very stubborn and arrogant men of our generation. He is now is in his early 40s but I am unable to help him. If he had not forced me to go to school I may never have matriculated or gone on to study and earn my BA at the University of the Western Cape. He has been sick for a numbers of months. Truthfully for many years.

    Recently my aunt took him in so that she can provide the caring role she always does when one of the members of the family is not well. My brother is known by all of us for being stubborn. He could not take the advice and guidance of my aunt. Instead, he continuously refused to go to the health facility to honour his appointments. He would even mislead heath workers when they asked questions about his health. One doctor asked, “Did you finish your TB treatment?”

    His response was not surprising to us, “I never had TB.”

    The angry doctor interrupted then said, “I could see here in my computer system that you were admitted at Karl Bremer and you are suffering from TB. Did you finish it?”

    My brother was angry and refused to answer any questions.

    HIV education

    Now he is about to die at any time. His CD4 cell count was 49 a couple of weeks ago. I allowed myself to get excited when he finally disclosed his HIV-positive status to me. I grabbed the opportunity and explained to him what is happening to his body. I even jumped to my room and grabbed flip chart papers and prestik to do treatment literacy on the wall of my shack, explaining to him how privileged he is to have a family member who can educate him on HIV treatment literacy. Medical staff in public health facilities do not have the time to educate individual clients about treatment because of the queue at their doorstep.

    Recently he was discharged because he refused to allow the doctors to take his blood sample and urine to test the progress of his health. I understand he is an abusive and stubborn patient. Recently he was at my sister’s place waiting for his death. He does not want treatment. He wants nothing.

    Throughout these days I’ve often thought maybe I owe him a big favour for his contribution to my life. He may have chased and beaten me on those dusty Eastern Cape streets, but without him maybe I would never have gone to university, never have become a gender and AIDS activist, never acquired the skills to do treatment literacy on flipchart papers on the wall of my home in Khayelitsha. It may be that I do owe him a favour for that. But I hope I don’t have to repay that favour by burying him. He has just been readmitted to hospital with meningitis. My brother I do not know what you want. I wish I could know why are you doing this?

    Thank you, my brother. I love you.

    Only weeks after this article was written, Leo’s brother passed on due to AIDS-related illness. His contribution to Leo’s life will live on.

  • Meet Sonke’s Staff: Sumaya Regal

    Sumaya Regal joined Sonke in February to support the office of the Executive and Deputy Executive Directors and also serve as the board secretary. She is based in the Cape Town office.
    She is somewhat of a godsend to Sonke, and makes a lot of communication much easier, especially when it comes to the very busy Dean and Des.

    She has extensive experience in setting up office management systems and implementing procedures as well as managing the offices of high-level executives in educational institutions, NGOs and corporations. Over the last seven years Sumaya has professionally managed the office of the Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation for South Africa and Director of the Indonesia Program. The OSF-SA is an international donor organisation and forms part of a network of 60 foundations all over the world with its head offices in New York and Budapest.

    She also gained international working experience at the largest mutual funds company in Boston, USA which has provided her the opportunity to work with people of many nationalities. Sumaya graduated from the University of the Western Cape as a secondary school teacher and obtained her human resource management qualification from Technikon South Africa.

    Sumaya has been married for 20 years and is the mother of two young sons. She loves entertaining family and friends from all over the world has been lauded as an excellent hostess and cook! She and her family enjoy travelling and Sumaya has lived, worked and travelled extensively in the USA and the Middle and Far East. Malaysia is her perfect family holiday destination and they have travelled there several times.

    A true Capetonian and proudly South African, her ultimate aim is to raise her sons to become bastions for justice, ideal husbands, and nurturing fathers and men who will be a benefit to their families and their communities at large.

    As the most recent addition to the Sonke family, we welcome Sumaya and hope she will be truly happy with us!

  • “Less Skin, We Win!”

    Less Skin, We Win! That’s the message that commuters in Cape Town and Johannesburg are getting when they take their taxi ride into work today, as taxis branded with the new Sonke Medical Male Circumcision (MMC) campaign messages took to the streets, encouraging young men in the Western Cape and Gauteng to get circumcised.

    Using taxis is a great way to reach large numbers of South Africans with information about campaigns like MMC: there are 16 million taxi commuters weekly of which 59% are under the age of 34. But in addition to those waiting at Taxi Ranks and riding in taxis are the millions of people who pass taxis on the roads each day. Each taxi creates 200 000 opportunities for the message to be seen each month.

    Within hours of the first MMC taxi hitting the streets of Cape Town, one of our own staff members (and the MMC Project Co-ordinator at that!) had spotted one on his way to work!

    For the moment, there are only a few of these taxis, in specific areas where Sonke is distributing MMC materials, working with partners, and conducting community dialogues and door-to-door campaigns, but in the coming year we will be putting more of these vehicles onto the roads.

    Commuters and passers-by who see the taxis are informed that Medical Circumcision reduces men’s chance of getting HIV by 60%. They are also encouraged to SMS the word ‘proud’ to 32759 to get information about free circumcision clinics in their community. And they are also provided with some additional reminders to always use a condom.

    Developing the campaign materials

    The entire campaign, which includes brochures, posters, t-shirts and murals in addition to the taxis, focuses on MMC as a positive move for men’s health, reducing the risk of HIV, cancer and STIs, with many of the same benefits shared by women (although the HIV risk reduction benefits for women are indirect). Working with students at Artists Proof Studios in Johannesburg, we have tried to balance the need for strong, clear messages that speak directly to our target audience (young men) with the need to ensure that the information is medically accurate and in no way encourages risky behaviour. Add in the need to ensure that the messaging is culturally sensitive and you have quite a complex set of considerations to take into account! It took some time, but the result is something we are all proud of.

    Watch this space

    We will be increasing the range of our MMC activities next year, including a stronger focus on social media and other forms of innovative communication.

    Amongst other things, we will be producing a teen fiction novel including an MMC storyline to reach a younger audience. We will also be using cell-phone technologies to provide before-and-after coaching to men who have signed up for MMC.

    A day in the life…

    A few times a day, Mr. Dass or one of his drivers drives a taxi into the Mitchell’s Plain taxi rank, waits his turn in line and leaves with a minibus full of people going about their daily lives. What makes his routine different is that his taxi is an ambassador for Sonke’s One Man Can campaign for Medical Male Circumcision (MMC) for HIV prevention. I went to visit Mr. Dass, the owner of the taxi with Mzamo Sidelo, a Sonke One Man Can Trainer based in Cape Town.

    We went to scope out the physical and social terrain that this taxi would cover, and hear a few local opinions on MMC. However, the rank was almost deserted of passengers at 10.30 AM, after the morning rush and before schools broke up in the afternoon. It started to rain so we stood under the shelter and ended up talking to some of the few people hanging around the rank – a small group of men and one boy.

    When we first asked what their thoughts were on MMC, they mostly just laughed nervously – and a little aggressively. One man chased another around the taxi threatening to “do it [circumcision] for you myself,” – by removing his foreskin in the taxi door! The topic brought out a kind of silliness in them, who, in the time we were there, playfully chased one another with batons and knives. Mzamo and I still wanted to hear some real opinions, though, and pressed on with other questions to see if the messaging was effective and clear.

    “How much protection do you have against HIV if you are fully circumcised?” I asked of a talkative, engaged and confident young man. “Um… 60%,” he said, without even looking at the taxi. After some more conversation, I realised that although he ‘played dumb’ when talking with the other men, he actually knew a lot about HIV and preventing infection. I wondered why he did not share this information when talking with the others. I asked the boy, probably about sixteen years old, the same question. He answered correctly after looking at the sign. (My thought: It works!)

    Talk about it!

    When we asked Mr. Dass if people talk about circumcision in and around his taxi, he replied hesitantly. “Well, yes, people talk. But a lot of people joke about it and don’t take it seriously. But some do. It definitely starts conversation!”

    And that’s one of the goals – for now. To introduce the idea and act of medical circumcision into the public sphere and raise awareness of its benefits. This kind of awareness-raising is merely one step in a process of change, a process that we hope individuals will go through and eventually make the decision to get circumcised, for their own health and for a wide range of benefits for their partner.

  • Public Health and Law

    Last winter, I packed my bags and headed to Cape Town for a two‐month internship with Sonke Gender Justice. As a research assistant in the Policy, Research and Advocacy unit, I would be working under Emily Keehn, a UCLA Law School Graduate and recent Cape Town transplant on a project involving the South African Prison system. The opportunity involved writing a publication mapping the pertinent laws and policies relating to HIV and AIDS prevention and education and violence prevention within detention facilities.

    The project was unique as it involved combining the fields of law and public health. As a public health professional, I had a slight understanding of the close relationship between the two fields. However, I had no idea how inextricably intertwined they were. Working with Sonke provided me with the opportunity to interact with law professionals and obtain first hand experience and insight into the close link public health shares with legal systems.

    Finding the link between Public Health & Law

    The prisons context provides the perfect example of this. There is, in fact, a critical link between public health and criminal rights. In South Africa, medical care is guaranteed under the bill of rights, and this right extends to inmates (within available resources) under the Correctional Services Act (CSA). Even though this is stated in law, in practice this is not always the case. Many prisoners living with HIV are denied access to antiretroviral medication and sexual education is sparse.

    From a public health perspective, this is troubling. Prisoner health is linked to community health, and in South Africa, it is also closely connected to public health. With hundreds of thousands of inmates circulating in and out of the prison system each year, it is essential that law and public health professionals combine their efforts in the fight for inmate rights.

    It is only in recent years that Anti-Retroviral Treatment has been made available to all prisoners in South Africa. This advancement did not come easy and required persistent protest from the prisoners themselves with both national and international advocates paving the way. In 2006, South African inmates launched a hunger strike, demanding that the government provide ARV treatment for infected prisoners. In response, Judge Thumba Pillay of the High Court ordered the Department of Correctional Services to adopt a comprehensive HIV and AIDS plan (Open Forum, 2009). This mandated that prisoners be provided access not only to ARVs, “but also to health facilities, regular counseling, and adequate nutrition… Unfortunately, this integrated ideal has yet to be translated into practical implementation.” (Health and Human Rights, 2009) Today, advocates, health workers, and inmates themselves continue to fight for full compliance with the decree.

    The aforementioned example highlights the success that is possible when the disciplines of law and public health work together in advancing issues pertaining to both fields. During my time at Sonke, my passion for health care was solidified and law became an area of high interest. I was unaware of how much advocacy and litigation came to fruition from the amalgamation of law and public health prior to my internship experience. As a result, I have become increasingly interested in exploring this relationship further in terms of providing public health expertise in legal work. I will never forget my time with Sonke, for it provided me with insight into the exciting intersection between law and public health.

  • A More Social Sonke

    The world is changing. Many of us lead parallel lives, one in our physical bodies, and one or more as digital entities. As resistant as many are to this phenomenon, it is very real and here to stay.

    Although we do not live physically on, for example, facebook, we act out many of the things we do in our physical lives on facebook. We have conversations, read, write, crack jokes, share our opinions, emotions, needs and interests; we play games, watch movies, look at photos and pictures, and more besides. Although we can’t do yoga on facebook, we can find out when the class times are and who the teachers are, instead of checking a noticeboard at the studio or calling in.

    So scoffers, scoff on. Facebook is reality, twitter is reality, and YouTube is reality. They certainly are different realities compared with a walk on Table Mountain, a meal at a restaurant with friends, or a war, which engage more of the senses, but not only are these digital platforms ‘places’ where people live, they intersect with the physical realm as well.

    Social media and change

    Around the world, over 90% of non‐profits have a social media component – a higher percentage than the world’s businesses. Non‐profits are usually interested in change, and change is a process. The behaviour change process is often described as the journey from being unaware of a problem, to aware of it, to actively working to change that problem, sustaining that change, and then advocating that behaviour and change process to those around oneself.

    This means that we want to reach people not only at the points where we encourage them to start a process of change, like at workshops, but also in their daily lives, to remind them of the change that we collectively seek and to encourage and support them to sustain positive behaviour, and give them an opportunity to share that change.

    Although South Africans live, work and play in vastly different areas and establishments across the country, over 4.5 million SA citizens have a Facebook profile, and well over 55,000 South Africans have active twitter accounts.

    Sonke: a network

    As well as engaging the individuals one-on-one in our community, Sonke Gender Justice is a network. This means that we recognize that the far‐reaching change we want to see in our local communities, our country, Africa, and the world, cannot happen if we are alone in our mission. We need like‐minded friends and partners to work towards a common goal.

    Social media sites are also called social networking sites. Technically, the social media part is the stuff that we share on Facebook, twitter, YouTube, etc: the statuses, the videos, the photos of grandma dancing at her 90th birthday party. The networking definition refers to the people you can connect with. When we receive updates from and are in digital relationships with our partners, we see the other projects they are working on and hear feedback from individuals and organizations who support them – in a way that calling them on the phone or meeting once a month could never do. From this information and network, we can grow, and collaboration is made easier. It is this networking aspect of social media that allows us to make a greater impact on the world by supporting our partners and being available to be supported by them in turn.

    Sharing ideas

    Two months ago, Sonke’s Cape Town communications team began participating in a (face‐to‐face!) network of communications staff from a variety of local HIV‐related NGOs. Our second meeting focused on our organizations’ use of social media. We found ourselves at different stages of life in our various digital lives, and we discussed ways to connect meaningfully using social media, to monitor our digital presence – and to measure its effect. That was the hard part.

    As difficult as it is to measure impact at this point, we realized we have to accept that social media are here to stay, and that we have to make a strong effort to integrate them into our organisations’ practices. The most successful non-profits’ digital presences (in terms of securing donations though social media campaigns, and reach) are, overall, some of the oldest. This shows that persistence and maintenance of an online presence do pay off, but that using digital platforms for change takes time. It requires building a wide network of people who learn to trust the organization, and over time, feel personally connected. It is at this point that someone who likes the organization will share its updates on their own profiles and so forth, becoming an online advocate for our work and engaging those outside of our network.

    After all, when we’re online, it doesn’t take much to share something that interests us; in fact, just surfing the net has become a social activity – we instantly share articles, pictures and videos from the website we’re on. This also means that digital spaces like Facebook and twitter are turning lay people into online activists who can have a real impact on their networks by sharing information, and heartfelt, personal opinions about critical issues.

    Join us!

    We’re currently using our Facebook and twitter accounts to share pertinent current affairs, have conversations with our supporters and to support and engage with like‐minded activists working towards the same goals of gender equality, human rights and reducing the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. We have plans to start integrating Facebook communications into our projects on the ground – we want to post photos and updates about everything we get up to at Sonke. So watch this space!

    *Please use our Facebook page to share your thoughts and feelings with us. We’d love to see you there.*

    • facebook.com/sonkegenderjustice
    • Twitter.com/SonkeTogether

  • Hamba Kahle Bruce Nkala

    On Saturday, 26 March 2011, Bruce Nkala, one of the One Man Can trainers based in the Cape Town office, passed away suddenly. We will all miss him, and send our thoughts and condolences to his family and loved ones.

    Bruce joined Sonke in July 2010 as a trainer on the WC Department of Health funded Prisons’ Project.

    Humble and respectful, he was well-liked and held in high esteem by his colleagues. His smile and teasing nature will be remembered by all.

    At the memorial service held at the Sonke office on 30 March, his family, friends and colleagues spoke about his deep commitment to community development and the profound impact he had on the lives of those around him.

    He was passionate about confronting negative male behaviour and shifting patriarchal mindsets and he embodied these values, helping to care for his elderly mother until her death earlier this year, and challenging his male friends to improve themselves and work to build up the community.

    Before joining Sonke, Bruce had volunteered at Catholic Welfare Development (CWD) as a trainer and counsellor for more than ten years and had worked for the City of Cape Town as Capacity Building coordinator. He had a wealth of experience in coordinating community events, and facilitating community trainings for men and women.

    Dean Peacock, speaking at the memorial, said, “Sonke promotes healthy living, and encourages men especially to pay more attention to their health, and to seek care early. Bruce’s sudden death is a reminder to us all that we need to take care of ourselves.”

    Bruce was an inspiration to many people, and his memory will continue to encourage us to promote change.